Sept. 03--Los Angeles police have sent additional officers into South L.A. as part of its effort to quell a surge in homicides, the LAPD said Thursday.
After remaining relatively flat for much of the year, the number of people killed in Los Angeles rose in August, marking a 7% increase compared with this time last year. Across the city, 185 people have been killed from the beginning of the year through Saturday.
Nearly half of August's 39 killings occurred in South L.A., where officials said the Los Angeles Police Department would focus additional resources and double down on community outreach efforts. Police Chief Charlie Beck attributed the majority of the violence to gang crime, which he said was up about 15% this year.
Along with gang cops, officers with the department's elite Metropolitan Division are hitting the streets in South L.A., according to an LAPD spokesman. Capt. Jeff Bert said the majority of the department's Metro resources were being focused on South L.A., though officers were also being deployed to other violent hot spots across the city.
------
FOR THE RECORD
4:33 p.m.
A previous version of this post and its headline stated that the LAPD would send 100 Metropolitan Division officers to South L.A. The LAPD later clarified that the majority of its Metropolitan Division resources were focused on South L.A., out of about 100 officers generally deployed citywide.
------
The idea, Bert said, is that having more officers on the ground will help them respond to crimes more quickly and potentially prevent retaliatory attacks.
To help speed up the police response, the LAPD has set up a new command post in its South Bureau that analyzes crime data throughout the area in real time, Bert said. The LAPD also is increasing community outreach with the help of gang intervention workers, local clergy members and other residents.
"We're concerned because it's a loss of life," Bert said. "That's why we're doing this big shift and we're pointing the nose of it south, because that's where most people are losing their lives."
LAPD Det. Chris Barling heads the homicide squad in South L.A.'s 77th Division, which has seen the highest number of killings so far this year: 43.
Barling said it was hard to pinpoint exactly why August saw so many deaths. Factors such as the summer heat, traditional gang truces going sour and community attitudes toward police can all have influence. He said it appears that several gang feuds have contributed to the increasing violence.
Barling and his team of detectives are centralized with other South L.A. divisions, meaning other detectives can step in to investigate new cases when one division sees an uptick.
"The bottom line is, we are trying to give each case it's time," he said.
