L.A. has lowest crime among big U.S. cities, midyear figures show

[bemildred]

At the year’s midway point, crime rates in Los Angeles generally have continued their decade-long decline, according to police figures released Wednesday.

The crime totals were announced by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a morning news conference. They heralded the continued fall in violent crimes with Beck calling Los Angeles “the safest big city in America.”

Through the end of June, the city experienced just shy of 9,000 violent crimes, a category that includes homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults. The total marked a nearly 9% drop compared with the same time last year, according to LAPD figures. With 147 homicides committed so far this year, the rate of killing is about the same as 2010 and puts the city on pace to have fewer than 300 killings for the third consecutive year –- a historic benchmark that is four times lower than the peak Los Angeles reached in the late 1990s. Robbery and aggravated assaults also are down, and the number of rapes has risen slightly in 2012.

Gang crimes, a major factor in the city’s crime landscape, also fell. Gang-related killings are down 8%, while the 405 people shot by gang gunfire represented a 21% drop.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/la-crime-lowest-big-cities.html

[progressivebydesign]

1. Just found this thread. I look at crime data a a lot, and people would be surprised how low it is.

Just one of those weird things that my family and I do sometimes, is get on City Data and compare cities where we've lived, or want to live, or never want to live.

And it always amazes them when we pull up places in California (not including the Central Valley or Oakland or Riverside which have crime issues.) But places around LA have crime rates equal or lower to many safe small towns. Pasadena, South Pas, Arcadia, etc. are like Mayberry crime levels.