For years (as previously reported by LBREPORT.com) LBPD hasn't listed the number of shootings anywhere in the City among LBPD's publicly released crime statistics. As also previously reported by LBREPORT.com, LBPD stopped providing the public with crime stats showing serious crimes against persons and property by Council districts over a decade ago. .

But the absence of publicly available numerical data on the victims of LB neighborhood shootings (persons hit and not hit, vehicles or buildings hit, casings found) is first reported by LBREPORT.com below.

The reason for all three data gaps is simple: LBPD isn't legally required by any state or federal law to compile, report and disclose the data in those ways. LB's policy-setting City Councils could direct LBPD to do so...but it hasn't.

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Under AB 953 (the Racial And Identity Profiling Act of 2015), effective 2018 LBPD (and law enforcement agencies statewide) must among other things collect and report numerical data on the perceived race, ethnicity, gender, age, and other numerical data involving police stops and contacts.

But there's no similar legal requirement to compile and publicly report such numerical data on the victims of neighborhood non-officer-involved shootings and homicides. To what extent are its victims among groups economically disadvantaged, hostorically disadvantaged or persons of color? In Long Beach (LA County's second largest city), these numerical data about victims of shootings, concentrated mainly in the city's orking class neighborhoods, are currently uncounted and unaccounted for.

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LBPD Public Information Officer/LBPD Officer Ivan Garcia acknowledges that such data aren't currently compiled or readily available now, but indicates some data on some shooting victims might be accessible through the use of Public Record Act requests.

Independent mapping by LREPORT.com shows LB neighborhood shootings and homicides mainly impact working class historically disadvantaged parts of LB. These include parts of Central LB's 1st and 6th Council districts and the western part of the 4th district. Less intense numbers of shootings impact parts of NLB (the northern portion of LB's 8th Council district and parts of LB's 9th district.)..Residents and businesses in LB;s more affluent eastern areas (districts 3 and 5 and eastern part of district 4) are largely spared these impacts. [LBREPORT.com has editorially called conditions a chronic inequity, a "tale of two cities."]

LBREPORT.com has also argued that shootings affect more than individual victims; every shooting (person hit, not hit, casings found) affects the entire neighborhood. It subjects all neighborhood residents (adults and children) to crime scene tape, blocked streets, restrictive perimeters, disruptive sirens and helicopters. Residents in other parts of Long Beach are spared these impacts.

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The City of Long Beach doesn't routinely list ANY shootings as part of its publicly released crime stats. Under federal crime reporting rules, shootings are included within "aggravated assaults" (which can include domestic violence, bar fights and some other crimes.) Long Beach could separately list shootings -- which LAPD does -- but LBPD hasn't been directed to do so by LB's policy-setting City Council and (like most law enforcement agencies) doesn't do so. LBREPORT.com checks daily with LBPD on shootings and reports them as confirmed.

Until 2004, Long Beach routinely provided the public with access to crime stats for multiple major crimes (Part 1 crimes against persons and property) by Council districts. This allowed LB residents to easily compare serious crime in their Council districts compared to others. That ended approaching the 2004 city election cycle (in which Mayor O'Meill endorsed two incumbents who were ultimately defeated) and the data was never resumed.

At the time, LBPD claimed it ended reporting serious crimes by Council districts because some of LBPD neighborhood-size crime reporting districts cross Council district lines. LBREPORT.com immediately questioned the rationale, noting that LBPD (obviously) knows the precise crime scene locations and could allocate the crimes to Council districts accurately. In addition, LBREPRT,com noted that "citywide" LBPD crime stats -- which LBPD continues to release and Mayor Garcia routinely cites -- cross all Council district lines.

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Long Beach residents must now rely on LBPD crime numbers displayed on pdf forms for neighborhood size crime reporting districts, and transfer and correlate the figures with Council district lines (a time consuming laborious process.) LBPD has declined to routinely provide the sane data in Excel or other digital spread sheet form (which would make the process easier.) .

LB Mayor Robert Garcia has used "citywide" crime stats (that conceal neighborhood impacts) to tell audiences "crime is down" (and has called perceptions of increased "quality of life" (lesser) crimes a reflection of social network communications.)

Despite LB voter approval of the 2016 Measure A sales tax increase, Mayor Garcia hasn't recommended (and Councils haven't voted to restore) roughly 180 previously budgeted police officers (including LBPD's now-former field anti-gang unit) erased in Council approved budgets during the 2009-2014 economic slowdown.

LB's police reductions weren't publicly opposed by the leadership of the LB police officers union (LBPOA) which has endorsed and contributed sums to elect and re-elect Mayors and various Council incumbents (including Councilmembers in some of LB's highest crime areas) who've voted to approve new contracts with pay and benefit increases for the union's members.

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