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LA’s Koreatown is getting safer every year

January 7, 2014

Crime rates go down across the board, according to LAPD

According to data accumulated by LAPD, crime is down in Koreatown. (Ha Sang-yoon)

According to data accumulated by LAPD, crime is down in Koreatown. (Ha Sang-yoon)

By Jung Gu-hoon

Koreatown in Los Angeles has gotten safer.

According to data accumulated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for Jan. 1 to Dec. 21, every division has shown a marked decline, including Koreatown.

Crime is down throughout Los Angeles for the 11th straight year, and homicides citywide are at the lowest level since 1966. Violent crime is down citywide 12 percent compared with the same period in 2012, and property crimes are down 5 percent.

LAPD’s Olympic Community Station reported a total of 843 cases of violent crime such as homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault last year in Koreatown and its surrounding areas, which reflects a 10% decline in comparison to the 934 cases reported in 2012. It’s also 9% lower than the 914 reported cases in 2011.

Homicide was reduced to a reported four cases, which is represent decrease of 71% from the 14 cases in 2012 and even lower than the six reported cases from two years ago.

Robbery and aggravated assault also went down 11% and 7% to 498 and 300 cases, respectively, but rape showed virtually no change, as 41 cases were reported last year, in comparison to 40 in 2012.

Property crimes also decreased from 4,174 cases in 2012 to 3,903 cases last year, but the figure is actually higher than the 3,829 cases reported in 2011. The largest drop was in auto theft (down 11% to 527) and then burglary cases (down 10%).

There were also less spouse and child abuse cases in Koreatown last year. They were down 5% to 422 cases from a year ago, and such cases involving firearms were reduced from 56 to 36.

The number of arrest made in Koreatown and its surrounding areas continued its downward trend, from 7,284 in 2011 to 6,327 in 2012 to 5,424 in 2013.