Nearly six months into the LAPD's crackdown on gang violence, the number of gang-related homicides in Los Angeles dropped 32%, mirroring an overall decline in violent crime across the city, according to statistics released Thursday.
The Los Angeles Police Department recorded 79 gang-related killings as of Saturday night, compared with 117 during the same period last year.
Chief William J. Bratton said the plunge in gang killings has helped fuel a 24% drop in overall homicides.
"That's 48 fewer murder victims, 48 fewer families victimized and 48 fewer young men going to jail for 20 to 25 years for that crime," Bratton said. "We are actually saving two lives -- the victim, and hopefully, keeping another young person from committing a murder."
The crackdown was a response to a 15% increase in gang-related crimes in 2006 as general crime continued to decline citywide. In response, the LAPD shifted more police officers into neighborhoods with large concentrations of gang members to target 11 gangs that police officials considered to be the worst.
The FBI and Los Angeles city attorney's office have also targeted several gangs that have been accused of racially motivated violence.
"That is a substantial decline in gang homicides if their gang-related definition has remained the same," said Malcolm Klein, a professor emeritus of sociology at USC who has studied gangs for several decades. Klein said that generally the LAPD has been fairly good at identifying gangs tied to crime but that it remains a subjective task.
He says he is not surprised that Bratton credited LAPD officers for the decline but he and others cautioned against attributing such a change to law enforcement actions.
To officers on the streets, there is no easy answer for the decline. Some officers said that although they believe recent police efforts have made a difference, other factors, such as demographic changes, improved trauma care for assault victims and longer prison sentences, are also affecting crime statistics such as homicide.
Three-strikes laws, for example, have thinned the ranks of some gangs in the LAPD's 77th Division, Det. John Radtke said. "If I sit down and go through the gang list, it's amazing how many names are in jail or dead."
Officers working in the areas where crime has fallen most steeply said they were reluctant to even guess why violent crime has declined.
