There are still plenty of signs of the violent crime and the gangs that have plagued this city for years.

School police carry guns and wear bulletproof vests. At dusk in the downtown, cash register receipts drop off sharply at the only sit-down restaurant. And last month, an 11-year-old boy was killed on a school playground, an innocent victim caught in the path of gang gunfire.

There are other signs, though, that the violence and the gang warfare have begun to ebb.

The number of homicides has been dropping steadily for more than a year. Between Jan. 1 and April 30, there were 19 murders, compared with 30 in the same period last year. The number of murders last year dropped to 78 from an all-time high of 84 in 1989.

The number of gang-related homicides also has dropped. In 1989, 34 homicides were classified as gang-related, according to Bobbie L. McDowell, the Compton Police Department's crime analyst. Last year, 24 homicides were gang-related.

Overall crime in the city was down more than 9.62% last year.

Law enforcement experts hesitate to make predictions based on the crime data, but city officials and educators are hailing the decrease in crime as a sign that their efforts against violence and gangs are finally paying off.

"You're just now seeing that the anti-gang programs started in the elementary schools are starting to bear fruit," said Kelvin D. Filer, a Compton Unified School District trustee. "I don't have any statistics to prove it, but I do think it's starting to have an effect, especially since we're (now) starting in the elementary level instead of waiting until junior high school."

Two years ago, the Compton Unified School District instituted a 15-week, anti-gang program in third-, fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms. The state-funded program, Operation New Start, stresses self-esteem, motivation and the importance of making choices.

"We try to go in and change the youngsters' attitudes if they're inclined to want to be gangbangers or drug dealers," said Willard McCrumby Jr., a former high school principal who helped develop the program and now directs it.

Law enforcement experts have a number of theories on why crime in Compton is dropping.

Sgt. Red Mason, a veteran gang investigator in the Compton Police Department, believes there is less crime because there are fewer gang members on the street. "You know it's on the decline when you put 50% of them in jail," Mason said, echoing the sentiments of many police officers who say the declining crime rate is the result of their hard work.