Crime is down in West Hollywood, particularly on the Eastside, according to a new report from the West Hollywood Sheriff’s station.
“We’ve seen a dramatic drop in crime in certain areas,” Captain Gary Honings told the City Council during its Monday night meeting.
Comparing January to June 2013 to the same six months in 2012, the sheriff’s department reports drops in almost all areas.
The overall number of “Part 1” crimes fell by 18 percent from 1,056 incidents in 2012 to 897 incidents in 2013, according to the report. Part 1 crimes include against persons (such as homicides, robbery, rape and aggravated assault) and against property (such as burglary, theft, arson and grand theft auto). In 2010, there were 975 Part 1 crimes; in 2011, there were 860 Part 1 crimes.
“The implementation of advanced technology has been at the forefront, including automated license plate recognition equipped radio cars, facial recognition computer software and cellular phone tracking equipment,” reads the report. “Numerous offenses have been prevented or solved through the use of the aforementioned systems.”
The city’s Eastside saw a 34 percent drop in crime, from 360 crimes in the first six months of 2012 to 238 for the first six months of 2013.
The Center City saw a 6 percent decrease in crime from 252 incidents in 2012 to 237 in 2013, while the Westside dropped by five percent from 444 crimes in 2012 to 422 incidents in 2013.
As for the individual crime categories citywide, robbery was down from 70 in 2012 to 32 in 2013. Of those 32 in 2013, seven were armed robbery, while 25 were strong-armed robbery (no weapon used).
Residential burglaries were down 47 percent citywide from 108 in 2012 to 57 in 2013.
Petty theft is down 4 percent from 323 in last year to 311 this year. Of that 311 number, 123 were shoplifting. The Gateway Center (site of the Target department store), was where 59 (19 percent) of those 311 petty thefts occurred.
Aggravated assault is down from 94 incidents (114 victims) in 2012 to 51 incidents (72 victims) in 2013.
Vehicle burglaries, however, were up 4 percent from 156 in 2012 to 162 in 2013.
Calls to police for possible intruders, interrupted thefts and night time trespassers are not reported, no prints taken and do NOT show up on police logs as reports. Does not mean these are not very scary events for those good citizens.