STATISTICAL REPORT OF POLICE ACTIVITY IN THE
DOWNTOWN AREA FROM MAY 1, 2000, TO APRIL 30, 2001

 

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends that Council receive and file this statistical report on police activity in the downtown area.

BACKGROUND

At the direction of the City Council at their regular meeting on May 8, 2001, a statistical report was developed of police incidents in the downtown area of Hermosa Beach for a one-year period. The statistical data was developed for the period of May 1, 2000, to April 30, 2001. The "downtown area" has been designated in the computer with certain geographical parameters, which would include the area of 10th Street to 16th Street, from the Strand to Palm Drive and also including the area of Manhattan Avenue from Pier Avenue to 14th Street.

The total calls for service includes those called in by citizens as well as self-initiated activity called in by the police officers on scene. These totals do not reflect all activity in the downtown area. The search parameters were for drunk and disorderly types of calls and incidents. For example, these numbers do not reflect burglary reports, traffic accidents, etc., which occurred in the downtown area. The categories listed are the types of calls that were searched.

• Calls regarding Fighting (Crime of Battery) 23
• Reports taken for Fighting (Battery) 30
• Calls of assaults with a deadly weapon (ADW) 4
• Reports taken for assaults with a deadly weapon (ADW) 2
• Calls regarding a rape 1
• Rape reports taken 6
• Disturbance calls 790
• Family disturbance calls 6
• Disturbance calls regarding loud parties 21
• Drunk and disorderly conduct calls 84
• Total 967

In the first 4 categories regarding fighting and ADW, the calls are differentiated between a reported call of fighting or a possible ADW versus a call that actually ended up with a report being taken. Of the 23 calls regarding fighting, no report was taken which means any number of things such as there really was no fight, or the combatants had already left the scene or it was mutual combat and/or no one was desirous of a report, etc. The disturbance calls are not only a result of citizens calling in but include self-initiated calls by officers. With the numbers of officers assigned to the downtown foot patrol beats with the mission of being proactive, it should be understandable that a number of calls would be generated due to their activity.

As a point of reference, there were a total of 26, 293 calls for service citywide during the period of May 1, 2000, to April 30, 2001. The 967 calls illustrated above represents only 3.7% of this call load. Additionally for the same period of time based on the monthly statistical reports turned in to Council each month, there were 3414 "disturbance calls" citywide. A disturbance call would include the categories listed above of Disturbance calls, Family disturbance calls, Disturbance calls regarding loud parties, and Drunk and disorderly conduct calls. The total amount of these 4 categories is 901 "disturbance calls" or 26.4% of the total disturbance calls recorded citywide for the same period of time.

There were a total of 9 rape reports for the period of May 1, 2000, to April 30, 2001. As you will note, 6 of these reports came from the downtown area.

For the same period of time, a total of 109 assaults were recorded for this 12-month period. Assaults as reported on the monthly statistical report include battery, ADW, domestic violence and child abuse. The applicable categories mentioned above would include fighting reports and assault with a deadly weapon report. Again, you will note a total of 32 assault reports out of 109 citywide or 29.4%.