(Jan. 11, 2019, 6:45 a.m.) -- In Los Angeles, LAPD crime stats display numbers of "shots fired" and "shooting victims" for various neighborhoods, See LAPD crime stats showing the number of "shooting victims" and "shots fired" in monthly reports for multiple parts of town at this link.
In contrast, Long Beach's publicly released crime stats don't display shootings anywhere. They don't show how many shootings LBPD has documented, where they occurred, or whether that figure has increased or decreased. Long Beach fogs its shooting numbers by including them within "aggravated assaults." This complies with minimum federal bureaucratic crime reporting requirements although it's near useless for Long Beach residents in mainly working class neighborhoods who report disproportionate levels of gunfire (an inequity LBREPORT.com has called a "tale of two cities.") As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, on December 13, 2018, LBPD issued a press release stating it was "recalculating" aggravated assaults, which it said were miscalculated since at least early 2018. Beginning early in 2018, the Police Department initiated a review of all aggravated assault incidents to identify the cause of a notable increase in the number of aggravated assaults. During this review, the department was unable to immediately determine any unusual contributing factors. After adjustment of review parameters, which included analysis of actual report narratives, it was discovered that a significant number of incidents had been misclassified as aggravated assaults, instead of simple assaults. These misclassifications were a result of data entry coding errors when reports were being electronically filed, and when reviewed for categorization...With this review, we anticipate seeing a decrease in aggravated assaults and an increase in simple assaults in the 2018 year-end crime statistics... LBREPORT.com presumes that in its "recalculation" process, LBPD would know or should know exactly how many shootings it documented in Long Beach in 2018 (shots fired and persons hit), where they were, and how many there were compared to 2017. [Scroll down for further.] |
LBREPORT.com today (Jan. 11, 2019) asked LBPD to provide us with that information to us for publication. [LBREPORT.com Jan. 11 email text] On December 13, 2018, LBPD issued a press release stating it was "recalculating" aggravated assaults, which it said were miscalculated since at least early 2018. LBREPORT.com presumes that in its "recalculation" process, LBPD would know or should know exactly how many shootings it documented within the category of aggravated assaults in Long Beach in 2018, where they were, and how many occurred compared to 2017. LBREPORT.com will report LBPD's response as received.
LBREPORT.com unofficially cumulates shootings (which we confirm daily with LBPD) on maps and, since Aug. 1, 2018, in a chart on our front page by Council districts. LBREPORT.com began the cumulating chart after Mayor Garcia released his recommended FY 19 budget on July 31, 2018, which the City Council approved without dissent in September 2018, that left LB without 186 citywide deployable officers that the City previously had. As also noted by LBREPORT.com, LBPD crime stats omit "ghost shootings" (which aren't included in any LBPD crime stat category) even when residents find bullet casings in "no-person-or-property hit" shootings, and in one case, an ABC7 camera crew captured the sound of gunfire while video recording a story in a neighborhood just northeast of downtown LB. Further to follow on LBREPORT.com
(LBREPORT.com is in the process pursuing this aspect of LB's 2018 crime stats separately.)
LBPD displays Part 1 crimes by its 5 divisions (North, South, East & West + Port) (see map here). It lists Part 1 crimes "citywide" (combination of all five divisions) and for each of the five LBPD divisions separately at this link. Although the City of Long Beach says it practices an "open data" policy and Mayor Garcia says he's "data driven," LBPD provides its crime statistics in a user-unfriendly digital format although we believe they could be made available in a user-friendly spread sheet format (which we presume LBPD uses internally.) That's our initial review. Further from LBREPORT.com on LB's 2018 crime stats to follow.
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