Long Beach Crime Rate Continues to Drop

Long Beach police recorded only five homicides in the first quarter of this year after registering 34 over the same period a year ago, according to crime statistics released Monday.

Mayor Beverly O’Neill attributed the 85% drop, as well as reductions in other types of crime across the city, to Long Beach’s expanding community policing efforts.

“While we consider even one homicide to be too many, we are nonetheless very heartened to see this figure reduced so significantly,” she said in a statement.

Other figures released Monday indicated a 6.5% drop in crimes against persons. Included in this figure was a 38% decline in rapes, a 24% drop in robberies and a 19% increase in aggravated assaults.

Crimes against property were down 22%, according to the report. Although commercial burglary rose 1%, grand theft fell 50% and auto burglary dropped 34%.

In its report, the department also pointed out that a recent FBI study ranked Long Beach 12th out of 272 cities nationwide in crime reduction between 1991 and 1995. Overall crime in the city declined 38% over that period, according to the study.