Property Crime, Aggravated Assault Increase in Northeast

LAPD Northeast Division Capt. William Murphy has released his monthly webcast, addressing increases in aggravated assault and grand theft auto that have occurred across the division in 2012.

Murphy said Tuesday the "biggest problem [the division] is facing this year" is an increase in auto thefts.

Compared to the same time last year, there have been 59 more auto thefts reported in the division so far in 2012.

Since June 15, there have been 11 auto thefts in Eagle Rock, according to the nationwide law enforcement database CrimeMapping.com. Three auto thefts have occurred in Highland Park since last week.

Overall, property crimes—referred to by LAPD as "Part 1" crimes—are up by 2.5 percent in 2012.

Murphy said that Northeast was one of the Department's leading divisions in crime reduction in 2011, which made it difficult to beat last year's numbers.

"The numbers we're going up against reflect that," he said. "We're confidant we can reduce that 2.5-percent, and by the end of the year we'll be beating last year's crime statistics."

Aggravated Assault

Murphy said  that reports of aggravated assault have also increased by 8.5-percent across the division compared to 2011. However, Murphy stated that the increase in aggravated assaults was not related to an increase in gang crime.

"We're still down year-to-date in gang related activity, but we're still up slightly in non gang related activity for the year," Murphy said.

Homicide

2012's homicide statistics are on track to match 2011's, Murphy said. So far, there have been six homicide in Northeast through the first six months of the year, one more than was recorded at the same time last year.

"That places us on track for a very good year as far as homicides go," Murphy said. "The last three years we recorded three of the lowest homicide totals in the last 40 years or so."