Arrests Decline as Major Crimes Increase : Law enforcement: Decrease in bookings by LAPD, sheriff's deputies is linked to targeting of fewer, more serious offenders. Drop in morale is also seen as factor.

By JOHN HURST

Feb. 22, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SACRAMENTO — The top two law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County made fewer arrests for major crimes last year than in 1990 despite an increase in the number of such felonies committed, statistics show.

As an apparent result of the 6% to 9% decline in arrests made by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, fewer felons have been tried in county courts and sent to prison.

Nearly 1,000 fewer inmates were sent to prison from Los Angeles County during the last six months of 1991 than in the same period of the previous year--a reduction of 11.5% overall and a decline of nearly 8% in the commitment rate for violent felons, according to state figures.

“From our standpoint, it’s a relatively simple explanation,” said Gregory Thompson, chief deputy district attorney. “When you count the bodies walking in the door to be prosecuted, there are fewer bodies walking in.”

Law enforcement officials speculate that the decline in arrests has been caused by everything from the targeting of fewer, more serious offenders for prosecution to a drop in officer morale connected to the Rodney G. King case.

LAPD records indicate that arrests for “Part 1” felonies declined 5.8% from 1990 to 1991, although reports of such violations rose 7.8%. Part 1 felonies include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson.

Sheriff’s Department records show that arrests for Part 1 felonies declined 9.4% in 1991, while the number of such crimes reported rose 5% from the previous year.

The LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department account for about 70% of all arrests made in Los Angeles County.

Some LAPD officials were reluctant to discuss the decline in arrests, saying only that the matter is under study.

“The chief (Daryl F. Gates) asked me to say that we’re looking at it,” said Commander Robert Gil, LAPD press relations officer. “That’s all I can say.”

But Sgt. Len Hundshamer, assistant to the chief of the Police Department’s Operations Division, was not so reticent.

Hundshamer maintained that one reason arrests are down is that police have been concentrating on perpetrators of multiple crimes rather than indiscriminately rounding up large numbers of felons.

“There were studies showing 55% of the crimes are committed by 10% of the bad guys,” he said. “Therefore it became more prudent to figure out who that 10% was . . . and arrest them rather than picking off the opportunist-type criminal.”

But Hundshamer also blamed the notorious King incident--in which LAPD officers were videotaped beating a motorist--for the decline in arrests.

“I’m sure it had some effect,” he said, stressing that he was expressing his personal opinion and not that of the department.

“It was a tragic event,” he said. “It had an effect on everybody. The media and the political backlash from that had an effect on everybody’s morale.”

Sheriff Sherman Block denies that the King incident has had any effect on the arrest rate, arguing that the decline began before the beating occurred last March 3.

Block is uncertain of the cause of the decline in arrests and thinks it may simply be a “cyclical” occurrence. But he also said the decline may be related to overworked deputies spending more time on such activities as community meetings and Neighborhood Watch and in dealing with abandoned vehicles and burned-out buildings. Such concerns are important in neighborhoods, he said, but do not result in many arrests. “I don’t know how we would study it (the decline in arrests),” Block said. “But what we’re hearing from the community is far greater satisfaction.”

Thompson, of the district attorney’s office, expressed both concern and relief over the decline in arrests.

“Ideally, every felon out there gets arrested and does the maximum period of time,” he said. “(But) when you talk about public safety, we generally come down on the side that it is not the number of people that you are arresting that is most significant. It is that you are putting the dangerous people in for as long as possible.”

Thompson went on to say that the decrease in criminal filings caused by the decline in arrests has given prosecutors and the courts more time to concentrate on a “small cadre of career criminals that are committing most of the crime.”

Besides providing a measure of relief for prosecutors, the decline in arrests and prison commitments has taken some pressure off the overcrowded state penitentiary system, which gets about 40% of its inmates from Los Angeles County.

The prison population, now at 102,141, will continue to grow, but the decline in inmate commitments from Los Angeles County should slow down that growth, said Richard Welch, chief of the offender information services branch of the state Corrections Department.

It is not the first time that arrests have declined in Los Angeles County. Last year, narcotics arrests dropped significantly on a county and statewide level. But 1991 was the first time in at least five years that major felony arrests of adults have dropped in the jurisdictions of the Police and Sheriff’s departments.

Such arrests made by the LAPD rose from 41,564 in 1987 to 57,718 in 1990 before declining to 54,356 last year, according to police records. During the same period, major felonies reported to police rose from 293,633 to 353,590, records show.

Sheriff’s Department figures show that its major crime arrests increased from 21,486 in 1987 to 28,027 in 1990 before dropping to 25,366 last year. During that period, reports of such crimes increased from 105,106 to 139,874.

Decreasing Arrests There was an abrupt decline last year in major crime arrests by the LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department after steady increases since 1987. Meanwhile, major crimes reported to the two agencies have continued to increase since 1987. Los Angeles Police Dept. 1991: 54, 356 (5.8% decline) Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. 1991: 25,(9.4% decline) Source: LAPD and L.A. County Sheriff’s Department