From: Captain Bill Murphy

Subject: Northeast (NOE) Newsletter

Hello everyone! Here is the newsletter to update everyone on past/upcoming events and give an overview of crime.

New Chief of Police

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today named Deputy Chief Charlie Beck as the 55th Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Chief Beck is a 32-year veteran of the LAPD whom I know very well. He is a "cops..cop" who has spent many years working his way up the chain of command in some of the toughest divisions in the City. Chief Beck has run the COMPSAT process for the past couple of years and is well versed in crime reduction and community policing strategies. I have had the honor to work for and around him for many years and I believe all of you will quickly appreciate the skills he brings to the table. He will be an outstanding Chief of Police of the LAPD. Congratulations!

Upcoming Events

1. BuryProp8 Protest - Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 4, 2009, between 6:30 to 11:30 PM, at Sunset Junction. The march will begin at Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Blvd and head north on Vermont to Sunset Blvd, then east on Sunset Blvd. to Sunset Junction. There will be a flat bed truck that will have sound capability and a series of speakers will address the crowd in front of the Le Barcito Bar on Sunset just west of Hyperion Street. We will be working with the March organizers and expect no issues. There will be problems with traffic so please be advised and make plans to avoid this area if you are in a hurry.

2. We will be using a Temporary Nixle Account that anyone who owns a cell phone can sign up and receive text messages regarding the March. The command post will have staff from our Media Relations Section that will send out updated one-way communications regarding the March. For example, we will announce the location of the marchers, what roads are shut down, etc. If you are interested in getting these updates, please do the following: type 25827 where you would normally type in a telephone number. Then in the text field, type buryprop8 (with no spaces). If you have done this successfully you will receive the following: You are now subscribed to receive messages from Incident Command Prop 8 Protest 11-4. To unsubscribe text: buryprop 8 off to 25827

   Hopefully, this makes sense. We will be evaluating the use of this text messaging as a tool to keep the community up to date on major incidents.

3. NOE Cigar Night - This is a fundraiser for the Police Athletic League (supporting youth programs). It has been re-scheduled for Thursday November 12, 2009, at 6 PM, at the Home Restaurant, 2500 Riverside Drive. The Dodger playoffs forced a change in date and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you are interested in supporting this event, please contact Sgt. Danny Roman, NOE Community Relations Office, at (213) 485-2548.
4. Veterans Day Parade - Will be held on November 8, 2009, at 1 PM. Staging will be in front of the LAFD Station 55 on York Blvd., Highland Park. A ceremony honoring Veterans will be held at Eagle Rock City Hall at 11 AM.

NOE Crime Update

Every time I send this Newsletter out, I receive responses from residents asking why I did not talk about the crime that occurred on their street. It usually goes something like " I did not see you talk about the burglary that occurred to my neighbors house - how come?" The answer is really simply, in this Newsletter I can only talk about crime patterns and/or trends. I also talk about major crimes (murder or possibly a big shooting incident). It is impossible for me to break down every individual crime that occurs within the 30 square miles of Northeast Area. Last week we had 110 total crimes. If you need information on individual crimes, please ask your Senior Lead Officer who can either fill you in on an e-mail or talk to you about it at an upcoming Neighborhood Watch Meeting. Thanks for your understanding.

Quick Recap:

Very clear: means little to no crimes at all for the week

No patterns or trends: means there were a few crimes but they were not related.

Sporadic Crimes: means there were crimes in a location cluster (neighborhood) but no patterns to the crimes.

Crime Cluster: pattern regarding a particular type of crime. I will talk about say car break-ins in a particular neighborhood, etc. Sometimes I will call this a series, which means we believe the same criminals are responsible for the crimes.

The year to date (YTD) crime statistics will cover from January 1, 2009 through October 31, 2009. The weekly crime maps I will be looking at and commenting on will cover between October 25 , 2009, through October 31, 2009.

YTD Violent Crime: Down 9.5%

YTD Property Crime: Down 15.8%

YTD Part I (total): Down 14.7%

YTD Homicide: Down 48.0% (13 vs. 25 last year)

YTD Robbery: Up 1.8% (up 7 robberies YTD )

• All categories of crimes (except robbery) are down significantly compared to last year
• We are down 840 total crimes YTD
• NOE Area ranks SECOND in crime reduction Citywide (out of 21 police stations). Newton Area just past us for first place. We had held first place for almost nine months.

Neighborhood Crime Update

Highland Park

On Friday night we had our first homicide (double in fact) in almost three months. Two men who were neighbors began drinking alcohol and basically partied most of the day and night. A verbal dispute erupted and a fight broke out between them. A third suspect joined in on behalf of one of the combatants. Unfortunately, this dispute turned ugly when one of the combatants got a knife and during this fight, two of the combatants were stabbed. The suspect who was not stabbed fled. Tragically, both men received emergency medical assistance from LAFD but succumbed to their fatal stab wounds. We quickly identified the third suspect who fled and arrested him today (Tuesday 11-3-09). This was an unfortunate example of too much drinking which resulted in a fight and poor judgement in regard to the escalation of force. Please intervene in these types of incidents (call us - or if you have a dialogue with them - talk to them) before they get out of hand. These are truly sad situations that hopefully can be avoided in the future.

We had another critical stabbing incident on Figueroa Street at Ave 61. This incident occurred at a Taco Stand after the local bars closed. It possibly involved a dispute over a female. One victim is still in extremely critical condition and may not survive. We have identified the suspect and expect that he will be taken into custody shortly. Excessive alcohol usage is the common denominator in both of these incidents. They are not gang related and pose no additional threat to the community.

Lastly, GTA cluster adjacent to Figueroa in the Ave 50-60s. Mostly older Hondas taken between midnight to dawn. This type of activity generally means a serial criminal (car thief) is at play. We are strongly following up with parole and probation checks (on car thief's) in the area.

Cypress Park

No trends or patterns - a few property crimes

Glassell Park

Had a shooting incident on Drew Street Friday night. A mother who was driving a vehicle with several children in it felt something hit her car. She examined the car and observed a bullet hit. She called the police and several officers responded quickly. They sealed the area off and using good police techniques, identified the suspect involved in the incident and arrested him. Four other suspects were arrested for other crimes (probation violations, etc..). Very good caper. This area has been pretty quite since the Avenues gang takedown on September 22, 2009.

Eagle Rock

No patterns or trends - only a few property crimes in area.

Mount Washington

No patterns or trends. A couple of car break-ins.

Atwater Village

No patterns or trends - a few property crimes (car break-ins, residential burglary, etc.)

Elysian Valley

Very clear

Echo Park

Very clear

Silver Lake

Very clear. We have made some arrests in the Echo Park/Silver Lake area that has reduced crime there. Looks good right now.

Franklin Hills

A few property crimes along border of Los Feliz and East Hollywood.

Los Feliz

Same as above. Crime is in the triangle between the borders of Los Feliz, Franklin Hills, and East Hollywood. Mostly GTAs and car break-ins.

East Hollywood

Recapped above. Extra patrol in this area as it usually accounts for the highest property crime numbers in Northeast Area.

Anyway, that's it for now. Please be safe and do not leave valuable items in your cars! Take care Bill 26152@lapd.lacity.org