Statistics released by local law enforcement agencies show that crime in Los Angeles and the county is on the decline — paralleling the nationwide declines in crime. more ›

A new "community safety scorecard" compiled by a public policy group takes a look at each Los Angeles zip code. The scorecard, created by the Advancement Project and published by Miller-McCune, "assesses the factors that foster or fight violence in every community" in L.A. more ›

The Los Angeles Police Protective League reports that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck shared with the Police Commission "assaults on LAPD officers are up 26.7 percent this year compared with 2010. He noted that as assaults on police officers increase, so do the number of officer-involved shootings - up 58.8 percent this year." more ›

Turn your brain back on this Saturday afternoon and bone up on your L.A. County stats. Today's boastful video lunch shares "Los Angeles County in numbers" via motion graphics by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC). more ›

The stabbing death of Jesse Garay aboard a Red Line subway train last month was the first killing on the rail system since it opened in 1993. Recently, the victim's mother filed a claim against Metro, accusing the transit system of lacking adequate safety. Now Metro has opted to release detailed crime statistics for the first time. more ›

Correlated, the daily statistics site that uncovers surprising correlations between seemingly unexpected things, asks a bold question today. "Who's cooler: New Yorkers or Los Angelenos?" Visit their site and take today's poll. more ›

One statistic I really detest in baseball is the quality start when the starting pitcher goes at least six innings while giving up three runs or less. Some people place a lot of importance in this particular statistic that really doesn’t tell the whole story. So I decided to come up with an equally detestable statistic, the “quality offense.” A quality offense is defined as a performance by the offense that generates three or more runs in the first six innings. I figure if there’s a counterbalance to the quality start it can tell a more complete story of a baseball team. more ›

Here in California, we call soda, well...soda. But in other parts of the nation when we want a sweet, carbonated beverage, we need to change our tune and ask for a "pop," a "coke," or any one of a dozen other regional nicknames for the drinks. more ›

Orange County is 34 cities and 789 square miles big and has, for a long time, been a symbol for Republicanism. That may not be the case anymore, finds the New York Times. At the very least, the demographics have shifted dramatically since those "Nixon County" days. Here's a quick look some recent statistics: more ›

New numbers released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department indicate that the region they patrol is experiencing a continuing downward decline in criminal homicides, resulting in the lowest homicide rate since 1975. more ›

It wasn't just Los Angeles. The latest stats and figures from the California Department of Justice show that violent crime, once again, went down in 2009. Statewide, every category saw a decline, whether it be homicide (-8.9%), robbery (-8.6%), motor vehicle theft (-15.8%) or arson (-14.3%). more ›

When guns are recovered as part of criminal investigations in California, authorities trace the weapons to their point of origin. Statistics released from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives indicate that in 2009, of the 32,964 guns traced in California, half came from Los Angeles County, according to LA Now. more ›

"It is mind boggling that we have continued to drive crime down in the numbers and we've done it in no small part because of the men and women of this police department," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at today's press conference discussing 2009 crime statistics. "We're still the most under policed big city police department in the United States of America," he said, referring to Los Angeles' size of force--just under 10,000 officers--and size of coverage--456 square miles. more ›

Some were hoping Los Angeles would see under 300 homicides this year, but by December 26th, 308 had occurred, according to the latest LAPD COMPSTAT report. That number is still considerably lower--18.1% lower to be exact--than the 376 homicides of 2008, which was considered low back then. Countywide, there had been 721 homicides through December 14th, according to the Homicide Report. The challenge of 2010 for the new LAPD Chief Charlie Beck will be continuing the downtrend in crime. Much of the credit goes toward former Chief William Bratton--a Mayor Jim Hahn hire--and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's aggressive stance on putting 10,000 officers on the street. That said, crime is trending down nationally--Los Angeles is still doing better than the average, says Beck--so it is yet to be seen if Los Angeles can buck any increase in national crime trends and keep heading towards more peace. more ›

As noted last month, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck mentioned that we may have the first year in modern history where the city of LA dips below 300 homicides." As the end of the year approaches, the latest crime statistics, which go through December 5th, show 285 homicides, 20 more since November 7th. What it doesn't show is any murders between the 5th and today, including the murder of a woman and her unborn twins (does that count as 1 or 3 homicides?). Whatever the number ends up being, it's too high. However, even if the number of homicides tips 300 by one, that's 50 less than 2008. more ›

Statistics for 2008 crime in California were released today (.pdf) by the Attorney General's office, finding that homicides and many other crime categories were down. In 2007, there were 2,258 homicides, compared to 2,143 in 2008--a 5.1 percent change. Forcible rape slightly decreased 1.6 percent to 8,906 incidents. The other two violent crime categories, robbery and aggravated assault, also went down to 69,391 and 104,793, respectively. However, burglary and larcenty theft over $400 increased slightly. more ›

Causing excessive noise, speeding, splitting lanes dangerously, motorcyclists can sometimes be exasperating. Not only that, statewide statistics show that motorcycle fatalities are on the rise, increasing 51 percent in the past eight years. In L.A. County, deaths have increased 62 percent in the last four years, most drastically in the 21- to 24-year-old and 55 plus age groups. more ›

Los Angeles County Sheriff's patrol large swaths of land from up in the Antelope Valley to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Charged with all unincorporated areas such as parts of South LA and communities like Castaic and cities that contract their services like West Hollywood and Santa Clarita, yesterday the agency announced a major drop in crime despite the economic downturn. The news comes on the heels of four fatal deputy-involved-shootings that occurred within one week's time. more ›

If you want good quotes, you go to LAPD Chief Bratton. He's always been one to be candid (remember his celebrity gossp/analysis?) Well yesterday, he joined Patt Morrision for her show on KPCC and when asked about LA Weekly's April 30th story refuting the LAPD's touted crime statistics, he dismissed it calling the report "voodoo journalism" said writer Patrick Range McDonald and cohorts must have "smoking a little weed when they wrote the article." That didn't sit well with Tina Dupuy at FishbowlLA: more ›

You know the saying, it goes something like this: "statistics speak for themselves." So when LA Weekly's Patrick Range McDonald got sick of hearing the Mayor and LAPD Chief William Bratton claim crime levels were down to 1956 levels year after year, he decided to do his own statistics gathering finding that no, Los Angeles is really not living in the 50s still. Here's some of what we learned: more ›

Officers were attacked 527 times up to December 23 of this year, according to the Los Angeles Police Protective League today. The total is the sum of 168 assaults with deadly weapons (14 with guns), 358 physical assaults and one death. SWAT member Randall Simmons was shot and killed last February in Winnetka when his team entered a home where a barricaded suspect was holding fort. more ›

There's good news and bad news when it comes to driving-related incidents that happened over the holidays this past week. According to the Daily Breeze, "Six traffic deaths were reported over the holiday weekend in Los Angeles County and DUI arrests by California Highway Patrol officers were down from last year's total." more ›

At yesterday's LA Police Commission meeting, Chief William Bratton reported the crime stats for the summer. Statistically speaking, it was a good summer. From the LA Times: "From the beginning of June through the end of August, there were 84 homicides in Los Angeles -- a level of relative calm not seen since the summer of 1967, when the city had 79 killings over the same period. By comparison, summer bloodshed in the city peaked in 1991, when there were 323 slayings during the same three months. More recently, the totals have hovered around 125 killings each summer over the last decade." more ›

Despite a 40% spike in homicides earlier this year, a slow down in the crime has evened out the numbers. As of Monday night, there were 204 killings overall, compared to 208 this time last year, according to the LA Times who also reports that "overall, violent crime this year was down 7% as of July 12, according to the LAPD. The number of shots fired was down 28%, as was the number of victims hit by gunfire -- from 1041 to 874, a decline of 16% for the same time period." more ›