| (Sept. 18, 2020, 3:25 p.m.) -- With the tacit approval of its policy-recommending Mayor and policy-setting City Council, the City of Long Beach (L.A. County's second largest city) fails to disclose the number of non-police-involved shootings in the City's crime statistics or their general locations. .
Long Beach's practice contrasts with the City of Los Angeles where LAPD shows the number of shootings -- with separate line items for "shots fired" and "shooting victims" AND their increases/decreases And their local division (geographic) locations -- in its routinely released crime stats. In terms of transparency and detail for its taxpaying residents and businesses, LAPD's practice puts Long Beach to shame. LAPD provides access to these shooting details in its crime stats citywide at this link. On the same page, it provides links to the data for EACH of LAPD's geographic divisions. In contrast, Long Beach Police Department crime stats display NO shootings. The Long Beach Police Dept. (operating under the City Manager who answers to the City Council) does what many local law enforcement agencies do,. LBPD includes shootings among "aggravated assaults," a collective category that can range from a bar fight with one party wielding a table fork to a near fatal shooting. LB's practice satisifies federal crime compiling bureaucrats but leaves LB taxpayers and neighborhood groups in the dark on non-police-involved shootings, Nothing prevents LBPD from displaying the shooting details that LAPD does: shots fired, shooting victims and their general locations (in LB;s case by Council districts.) [Scroll down for further.] |
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LBREPORT.com (and some of our competitors) get our shooting informaion by requesting it daily from LBPD;s Public Information Officers, who provides the information. However LBPD doesn't list the shooting data in its publicly released crime stats. The shooting data may prove embarrassing to Council incumbents in some Council districts. A tab on LBREPORT,com's front page shows details on LB shootings this link. In June 2020, LBREPORT.com launched a visual dashboard comparing shootings by Council districts on our front page at this link
LBREPORT.com has repeatedly raised the issue of the city's of LB's use of "aggravated assaults" to conceal shooting numbers (in 2015 coverage here, 2018 reports here and here and most recently in July 2020 here. The City Council's "Public Safety Committee" (Price, Supernaw, Austin) could long ago have agendized the issue for discussion and a recommendation to the City Council. Under chair Price (since mid-2014), it hasn't. Any City Councilmember could agendize the issue for Council discussion and voted direction to the City Manager to have LBPD include shooting information (shots fired, persons hit, Council district) in LB's crime stats. Under Mayor Garcia (since mid-2014), no Council incumbent has done this. It's now up to LB taxpayers -- voters, neighborhood groups and businesses -- to press LB Councilmembers to direct city management/LBPD to disclose the number of shootings (shots fired and persons hit) and the Council districts in which they occur in LBPD's crime stats.
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