The latest city budget, approved by the Los Angeles City Council in May, plans to allocate $3.2 billion to the LAPD, even though new police data show that crime in the city has moderately decreased this year.
The data, recorded from April 23 to May 20, shows that the percentage of violent and property crimes has declined.
Specifically, the number of rapes within the city has decreased 4.7% and robberies have decreased by 6.6% compared to the same time last year, the data show.
Burglaries, vehicle thefts and homicide rates have also seen a decline, researchers found.
The LAPD also shared additional positive crime statistics on Twitter, saying that homicides, hate crimes and fatal traffic crashes have decreased in L.A. this year compared to 2022.
However, not all crime trends have seen a decline in the city. Experts did find that violent and property crimes, such as homicides and burglary or theft from a vehicle, did spike within the first few months of the year.
Still, violent crimes for this year are lower than the 2021 rates.
The $3.2 billion expected to be allocated to the LAPD will include funding to replace the 600 or so officers expected to leave or retire and hire 400 new officers on top of that.
When the mayor’s budget was presented to the City Council members, most supported the proposed spending plan since it contained $1.3 billion to combat homelessness.
However, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez cast the only vote against the budget since a large portion of the funds will be going to the LAPD.
“I don’t believe that the proposal put forward today is responsible budgeting, and I will not go back to my constituents and tell them that $13 billion doesn’t include enough money to deliver the basic municipal services that they deserve and demand,” Hernandez told City News Service.
The latest spending plan is an 11% increase from last year’s budget.
