Violent crime fell 14% in Los Angeles last year but homicides held steady, eluding Police Chief William J. Bratton's ambitious goal of reducing killings by 20% or more.
There were 511 homicides in the city in 2004, a shade below 2003's total of 516. Overall, there were 6,500 fewer violent crimes last year, including drops in rapes, robberies and assaults.
Crime has emerged as a key issue in this spring's mayoral race. Mayor James K. Hahn, who faces a tough reelection fight, has made the drop in crime since Bratton took office a centerpiece of his campaign.
But Hahn's opponents criticize the mayor for being unable to significantly increase the size of the Police Department during his first term. Hahn and Bratton had backed a half-cent countywide sales tax on November's ballot to raise money for more officers, but voters rejected it.
Bratton expressed disappointment that homicides didn't decline further, but said he believed the overall crime drop showed that Los Angeles is getting safer.
"Would I have liked to have done better in [reducing] homicides? Absolutely," said Bratton, who was appointed by Hahn as chief in 2002. "But when you look at my two years here overall, we're out of the gate pretty fast.... That's a self-initiated goal that no other police department in the country has."
With no new infusion of cash on the horizon, LAPD officials said they are trying to get the most they can from the existing police force by moving more desk officers onto the streets and concentrating resources in high-crime areas.
"At the end of the day, there are over 6,000 people and their families who would have been the victims of a serious violent crime had the numbers remained the same as they had a year ago," said Assistant Chief George Gascon, head of LAPD operations. "We accomplished the reduction [in violent crime] with less resources and less overtime but better focus by the men and women working the streets."
Los Angeles' flat homicide numbers contrasted with other large cities. Nationwide, slayings in other cities with more than 1 million residents were down nearly 9% as of midyear, according to FBI statistics. Numbers for all of 2004 were not available.
The number of homicides fell 4% in New York through mid-December and tumbled 25% through Dec. 27 in Chicago compared with the previous year. (Those departments, however, have far more police officers per capita than the LAPD. For example, Chicago has 13,500 officers for 2.9 million residents while Los Angeles has 9,100 for 3.7 million residents.)
