Seasons greetings from the men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department. The following is the monthly update for December 2004. We hope you find the information useful. You are encouraged to continue to visit our website at www.lapdonline.org as it has recently been redesigned and updated. CHIEF’S MESSAGE LAPD, State of the Department: A Plan of Action for the Los Angeles That Is and the Los Angeles That Could Be When I took the oath as Chief of Police, I had a clear vision for what could be done to reform and redeem an embattled Police Department, and make Los Angeles a safe city. Now two years and two months later, that vision is a Plan of Action, a roadmap for change, and a roadmap for success. Posted on the Department’s website since late October, this plan, titled “LAPD, State of the Department: A Plan of Action for the Los Angeles That Is and the Los Angeles That Could Be,” describes what we, the men and women of the LAPD, are doing and planning to do with the resources we have at our disposal to make Los Angeles as safe a city as possible. To understand where we are going, we have to remember where we have been. Since joining the Department more than two years ago, I have worked hard to rebuild trust between the LAPD and the communities we serve. It has not been easy. The wounds of the Rodney King incident and the Rampart scandal run deep. A court-ordered Consent Decree triggered intended and unintended reactions inside the Department. Police alienation led to police inaction with respect to crime fighting. After 1999, arrests fell precipitously and crime rose dramatically. By the end of 2002, murder showed a three-year rise of 54 percent. A clear set of goals and priorities were developed to construct a police organization effective against crime and potential terrorist attacks, that conducts itself lawfully, constitutionally and respectfully at all times. Accountability and transparency have helped us achieve the first of our goals. The COMPSTAT system is now revealing patterns and devising better strategies to address emerging crime problems. Dramatic crime reductions have been achieved in the last two years because police officers are back in the game. In 2003, arrests went up 10.9 percent. In the first half of this year, arrests increased another 8.4 percent. Response time has also improved significantly, with a citywide average of 6.7 minutes. Except in the area of technology, the LAPD is making substantial progress towards achieving compliance with the Consent Decree. We have reformed the disciplinary system to make it more consistent and fair while making certain all public complaints are thoroughly investigated and adjudicated in a timely manner. We have expanded the number of targeted sting operations in the search for serious misconduct and corruption. By being accountable operationally, we have generated significant savings for the City. A 31 percent reduction in Board of Rights hearings has saved more than $3.5 million. Another program, created with the City Attorney’s Office, will save nearly $2 million in court-related police overtime in just six months. To achieve our goal of rebuilding trust, we have attended many community meetings, developed additional Community Police Advisory Boards, opened COMPSTAT to the public and the media, and utilized and equipped our Senior Lead Officers more effectively. While I am pleased with the progress we are making, there are still significant obstacles to achieving our goal of creating the trust necessary, inside and outside the LAPD, to secure every Los Angeles neighborhood. What I have learned most starkly since becoming your Chief is that this Department has always been too small to carry out its mission in every neighborhood of the City. It has never been realistically and correctly sized to succeed, to conduct lawful and respectful policing, in which officers know they have sufficient numbers to safely handle any emergency, protect all residents, and protect each other. It created a style of policing that sometimes instilled and reinforced fear rather than trust in the many that we are sworn to protect and serve. Today there are more than 45,000 gang members in the City. More than half of the City’s murders are gang-related. Law-abiding residents in some of the City’s neighborhoods report they are afraid to walk the streets, afraid of reporting crimes, and afraid of serving as witnesses. Children are often caught in the crossfire; some feel compelled to carry guns, and even join gangs to protect themselves. Police officers themselves all too frequently and often without provocation come under attack in these neighborhoods. Recent reductions in crime and disorder in Los Angeles and other cities has demonstrated that we know how to address the gang problem: through community based policing and its emphasis on prevention, intervention and assertive, proactive enforcement. A properly managed and properly funded police department can provide effective enforcement, consistently, compassionately and constitutionally in every neighborhood of this vast and complex city. Quite simply, I believe we need to achieve a uniformed strength of 12,500 officers, combined with state of the art technology to eliminate unnecessary paperwork, streamline arrest processing, and instantaneously deliver appropriate crime and counter-terror information to every level and individual in the police department. Based on my experience as head of the police departments in Boston and New York, I believe that number of officers will secure a lasting 50 percent reduction in murder and violent crime from the still too-high levels we see today. Should we achieve a total of 12,500 officers, we will monitor the growth to see if smaller staffing levels can achieve control of the gang problem in every neighborhood, protect the residents and the police officers of this City, and provide reliable counter-terror systems. In short, realizing Mayor Hahn’s vision of having the safest large city in America. Nearly a decade ago, I wrote something that I still believe today, “There are not many optimists in this country. I am an optimist. An organization is always reflective of its leader, and if there is no belief at the top echelons, there will be none below. I fully believe that with able police leadership, political will, well-trained cops, and community participation, we can take back America, state by state, city by city, borough by borough, block by block. And we will win.” I want to begin by taking back the streets of Los Angeles. But the simple truth of the matter is, to do that quickly and comprehensively we need a lot more officers. I am committed to continuing the fight to achieve the necessary resources that are clearly spelled out in our Plan of Action. As we end 2004 and look back on our successes, and as we enter this joyous holiday season, I wish you all the best to you and your families. CRIME STATISTICS - CITY-WIDE Year to Date as of December 4, 2004 Homicide Up 0.4% Rape Down -5.8% Robbery Down -15.0% Aggravated Assault Down -13.1% Child/Spousal Abuse Down -13.9% --------------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL VIOLENT CRIMES Down -13.6% Burglary Down -9.4% Burglary/Theft from Vehicle Down -10.4% Personal/Other Theft Down -6.6% Auto Theft Down -12.3% --------------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL PROPERTY CRIMES Down -9.7% CHIEF’S HOLIDAY CELEBRATION Preparations are being made for the 2004 Chief’s Holiday Celebration, benefiting the Los Angeles Police Foundation. The festivities include dinner, dancing, entertainment and more. The event is scheduled for Saturday, December 11, 2004, at 7:00 p.m. at the Los Angeles Downtown Marriott, 333 South Figueroa. The cost per person is $125. To purchase tickets, contact the Los Angeles Police Foundation at (213) 741-4550. SCENE OF THE CRIME: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE LAPD ARCHIVE BOOK SIGNING The Los Angeles Police Historical Society presents Chief William J. Bratton and James Ellroy at a book signing of “Scene of the Crime: Photographs from the LAPD Archive” at the Los Angeles Police Museum Jail, on Thursday, December 16, from 7 to 9 p.m. Long forgotten in a warehouse, these recently discovered photographs from the LAPD archive form a powerful visual history of the underbelly of Los Angeles from the 1930s to the 1960s. The Los Angeles Police Museum is located at 6045 York Boulevard in Highland Park. The books will be available in the museum gift shop. For more information, call the museum at (877) 714-LAPD. WILLIAM J. BRATTON Chief of Police To unsubscribe from this newsletter please click on this link http://listserv.lacity.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?SUBED1=lapd_monthly&A=1