Valley Crime Drops Sharply in 1st Half of ’97

Building on a national trend, the San Fernando Valley experienced a double-digit drop in crime during the first half of the year, including an 18% reduction in violent crime in the Van Nuys Division.

Citywide violent crime--which includes homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults--dipped 12% through the end of June. The biggest drops in crime citywide were 16% dips in thefts and burglaries.

The statistics have put local law enforcement officials in an optimistic mood as they observe the summer months, when violence historically has soared with the thermometer. But this year--with a stronger economy, a growing police force and computers aiding in the fight against crime--police hope the trend toward less violence will continue to hold.

“I’m cautiously happy,” said LAPD Capt. Michael Downing, who commands the Van Nuys Division’s patrol officers. “But I’m not content yet. I’m still focused on trying to drive crime down to a more acceptable level.”

The West Valley and Foothill divisions led the Valley with 20% drops in thefts and burglaries. Even the persistent problem of gang-related violence is down 17% throughout the Valley, which also saw 20% fewer drunken-driving collisions in the first half of the year.

Serious collisions including fatalities, however, rose 12%, while homicides held steady with last year’s figures, which represented a 30% drop from 1995.

And despite the national publicity generated by the Feb. 28 Bank of America shootout in North Hollywood and its live TV coverage, bank robberies actually dropped by 33% in the Valley, including a 50% drop in takeover robberies.

The dip in local crime follows a national trend in which violent crime decreased 7% from 1995 to 1996, the fifth straight annual decline.

A diminution in the use of crack cocaine, an upswing in the economy and a stronger emphasis on gun control are several factors fueling the national trend, said Lewis Yablonsky, an emeritus professor of criminology and sociology at Cal State Northridge, who has studied crime for more than three decades.

“In the Valley, there has been a reduction in gang violence,” said Yablonsky, author of the recently published book “Gangsters: 50 years of Madness, Drugs, and Death on the Streets of America.”

“To at least some extent in the Valley there has been a gang truce, which seems to be holding.”

The 657 gang-related crimes committed during the first half of the year in the Valley represent a 17% decline from the 787 for the same period last year. That marks a stark change from 1995, when a then-2-year-old Latino gang truce temporarily collapsed, triggering an outbreak in gang-related killings in the Valley.

Another factor contributing to the recent decline in gang violence may be improved internal communications between gang enforcement officers who work the Valley’s five police divisions, said LAPD Lt. Fred Tuller, who heads the Valley Bureau’s gang enforcement unit. The officers have become better at sharing information on gang members and their activities, which often cross division boundaries, Tuller said.

Other possible reasons for the decline in crime are a ripe topic of conversation among local police officials, who are quick to acknowledge that numerous factors are at work.

In Van Nuys, Downing’s officers have been using computers to analyze statistics and target problems in their division.

“We can focus on patterns quicker and deploy resources to those spots where we see things developing,” Downing said. “It’s a system that has allowed us to take ‘random patrol’ out of our vocabulary and replace it with ‘directed patrol.’ ”

Police in Van Nuys also have been keeping better tabs on robbery and murder parolees living in their division, and working with their parole officers to carry out searches to ensure that the released convicts are carrying no drugs or weapons. A similar approach is being employed to monitor the area’s known “hypes,” or heavy drug users, who often pull off burglaries to feed their drug habits.

“We’re concentrating on the 20% of the criminal element that causes 80% of the crimes,” Downing said.

Valley traffic officers are issuing traffic citations at a record-setting pace. So far this year citations are up 22%, nicely positioning the division to surpass the 102,643 citations written last year.

“About 85% of what we write are speeding tickets because speeding is the leading cause of injury and death,” said LAPD Capt. Alan Kerstein, commanding officer of the Valley Traffic Division.

In the West Valley, LAPD Lt. George Rock, head of the division’s detective bureau, pointed to drug enforcement and prevention programs and an active Neighborhood Watch program as significant factors in his division’s 20% reduction in thefts and burglaries, and a 12% decline in violent crimes.

“A countless number of our crimes have been solved by a phone call from a citizen or a member of a Neighborhood Watch program,” Rock said.

Showing residents how to prevent crime is a main tenet of the community-based policing philosophy that the Los Angeles Police Department has been promoting throughout the city.

“We’re trying to educate communities on how to resist crime by beautifying their neighborhoods,” Downing said. “Getting rid of abandoned cars and graffiti makes it an uncomfortable place for criminals to exist.”

The police officers who patrol the Valley’s 250 square miles are well aware that they are fighting the perception about crime nearly as much as they are fighting crime itself. And the Valley, with its 1.3 million residents, never seems to have a shortage of high-profile crime cases.

In February, the security chief at a crime-plagued Northridge apartment complex was fatally gunned down--ambushed as he left night school--in what police described as retaliation for his efforts against drug dealing and gangs. Five days later, in an unrelated incident, officers from the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section shot and killed three robbery suspects and wounded a bystander after an armed holdup at a Northridge bar.

The Bank of America shootout, which spilled onto residential side streets a few days later, mesmerized TV viewers for days with its warlike images. And in May, a suspect in an attempted murder holed up in a Chatsworth warehouse shot and killed a Glendale police officer and injured two Los Angeles police officers before turning the gun on himself.

To ease fears of random violence, local police in recent years have been working closely with residents, telling them that if they work together they can reduce crime. The latest statistics help drive that point home.

“It helps with the perception,” Downing said.

Despite the improving statistics, authorities are quick to remind residents of a simple reality: Crime has decreased, not disappeared, in the San Fernando Valley.

So police are urging residents to continue to keep their guards up to avoid falling prey to a crime. Having a watchdog, installing quality locks on doors and windows and joining a Neighborhood Watch program are all steps that residents can take to increase security at their homes and around their neighborhoods.

“We don’t want to give the community a sense of false security,” Rock said. “Crime still exists and will always exist.”

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Drop in Valley Crime

The San Fernando Valley experienced a big drop in violent and proprerty crimes during the first six months of this year. Bank robberies and gang-related violence are also on the decline. Police officials attribute the drop in crime to a number of factors, including an improving economy, a growing police force and more public involvement in Neighborhood Watch programs. Figures shown compare the first six months of 1997 with the same period in 1996.

Gang-Related Crime

Gang-related crimes dropped 16.5% for the first six months of 1997 (Valley total in hundreds).

1996: 787

1997: 657

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Valley divisions 1996 1997 % change Van Nuys 184 150 -18.5% North Hollywood 187 137 -26.7% West Valley 136 91 -33.1% Foothill 202 192 -5.0% Devonshire 96 90 -6.3%

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Violent Crime

Violent crimes dropped 9.8% for the first six months of 1997 (Valley total in thousands).

1996: 7,305

1997: 6,592

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Valley divisions 1996 1997 % change Van Nuys 2,006 1,637 -18.4% North Hollywood 1,416 1,281 -9.5% West Valley 1,275 1,125 -11.8% Foothill 1,590 1,470 -7.5% Devonshire 1,018 1,079 6.0%

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Property Crime

Property crimes dropped 18.3% for the first six months of 1997 (Valley total in thousands).

1996: 29,948

1997: 24,476

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Valley divisions 1996 1997 % change Van Nuys 6,851 5,585 -18.5% North Hollywood 5,606 4,904 -12.5% West Valley 6,926 5,525 -20.2% Foothill 4,695 3,749 -20.1% Devonshire 5,870 4,713 -19.7%

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Bank Robbery

Robberies in the Valley dropped 33% and takeovers dropped 50% for the first six months of 1997. In L.A., robberies dropped 64%, and takeovers dropped 77%.

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Valley Los Angeles 1996 1997 1996 1997 Robberies 86 58 162 59 Takeover 24 12 22 5

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Source: Los Angeles Police Department