Los Angeles Daily News

Bratton: City can't meet 20% cut in homicides
By James Nash
Staff Writer

Thursday, September 02, 2004 -

With the murder rate in Los Angeles outstripping last year's level, Police Chief William Bratton said Thursday he is all but certain the Los Angeles Police Department won't meet his goal of reducing homicides by 20 percent this year.

From January to Aug. 28, there were 357 homicides in Los Angeles, up from 339 during the same period last year, according to LAPD statistics. That represents a 5.3 percent increase.

"It's quite clear that we're not going to get 20 percent (reduction) on the homicides," Bratton told reporters.

Last year, he set a goal of reducing homicides and other forms of violent crime by 20 percent in 2004 compared with 2003 levels.

With the exception of homicides, other categories of violent crime -- rape, robbery, assaults and domestic abuse -- are down this year, according to the LAPD. Overall, violent crime was down 15.1 percent compared with the same period last year.

"Homicides are an anomaly," Bratton said. "The cops are doing a good job knocking down the (crime) numbers."

Property crimes, which include burglary and theft from cars and residences, declined 8.2 percent from the same time last year.

For the LAPD to realize its goal of reducing homicides by 20 percent this year, there could be no more than 35 slayings in the last four months of the year, which would be unprecedented in recent years.

Bratton said the 9,200-officer LAPD needs more officers to realize dramatic reductions in crime. He said homicides declined sharply in the LAPD's violence-plagued South Bureau when the police force was beefed up by 100 officers.

Bratton reiterated his support for a Nov. 2 ballot measure to increase the sales tax in Los Angeles County by one-half percent, which officials say would allow the LAPD to hire more than 1,200 officers.

Officials said they were disappointed but not surprised that the city is unlikely to meet the 20 percent reduction in homicides.

"The mayor (James Hahn) wants to continue working with Chief Bratton to reduce homicides in every way possible," said Deputy Mayor Julie Wong. "Of course, the mayor wants to see no homicides in the city."

A rival for Hahn's seat, former police chief and current councilman Bernard Parks, wrote a letter to police commissioners Thursday calling on them to "develop crime strategies that will bring safety to our communities."

In an interview, Parks, whose Eighth District in South Los Angeles leads the city in homicides, said he was alarmed at spikes in the murder rate in some communities.

"We can put our hopes on the tax initiative and certainly I support it," Parks said. "But we can't pin all our hopes on it passing. We need a strategy if it doesn't pass."