VIOLENT CRIMES 2008** 2007** % Chg
Homicide 95 72 31.9%
Rape 161 180 -10.6%
Robbery 2732 2961 -7.7%
Agg Assaults ** 2632 2650 -0.7%
Total Violent Crimes 5620 5863 -4.1%
PROPERTY CRIMES
Burglary 4070 4390 -7.3%
BTFV 6518 7243 -10.0%
Personal/Other Theft 5514 6068 -9.1%
Auto Theft 4735 5462 -13.3%
Total Property Crimes 20,837 23,163 -10.0%
Total Part I Crimes 26,457 29,026 -8.9%
** Prior to 2005, Aggravated Assaults included Child/Spousal Simple Assaults
Suicide's The Top Risk @ The LAPD
LOS ANGELES (KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO) -- More LAPD officers die from suicide than are killed in the line of duty even though the number of suicides in the department has declined in recent years, according to a report going before the city's Police Commission today.
In the last nine years 19 officers committed suicide while seven were killed on the job. The suicide rate at the LAPD is higher than at the LA County Sheriff and the NYPD.
MMVIII KNX Radio, All Rights Reserved.
Posted by: Kim Stone | March 25, 2008 at 01:45 PM
Wow!!! 82 days into the year and already 95 homicides! The City was on track to average 1 per day, but we've managed to exceed that already. Kind of makes me wonder then, how the Department can keep claiming that all other crime rates are dropping...
Posted by: Edgar Friendley | March 26, 2008 at 09:38 AM
From ABSEA on LAPD suicides:
I don't know about all departments, but mine is filled with politics and secrets. Many young officers get a bit of power and find their moral fiber change with what they see on the street. Many find themselves living a life they never dreamed. This might mean becoming jaded to the public, sometimes actually straddling the line of committing crimes themselves. Many find themselves cheating on their spouse / or other half. Some years ago two of our LT's were being examined, I don't know exactly why, and both had been found to be having affairs during work hours. One had even had a child with his mistress who was a dispatcher in the same dept. The Lt who had the child and had many other outstanding issues was about to be promoted to Deputy Chief, the other Lt was told he was about to be terminated for the same issues. The latter could not deal with losing his career after all his years on the job and
committed suicide. Our department is known for the "Good Ole Boy" syndrome and if you are not well into the right
group, you are doomed. I have found myself a target of that system myself and it is not an easy one to fight. Let’s make it clear that reasons some LEO's make this choice may not have anything to do with what they saw in the field, but how they are treated by their own brothers and sisters in blue. We need to promote real morals and not let the little things go. We in Law Enforcement have a duty to be held to a higher standard of the law as an example to the citizens. We have a moral responsibility to lead by example and not take up the attitude we can do what we want because we have a badge. This means with the stripes we achieve, we take on more responsibility to help those under us. JMHMO
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It is really sad to read about a Police Officer that takes his own life. No one walked in his shoes and can say why he or she took that way out. They had to have a reason and to them it was enough. No one talks about their sacrifices, only about how they died, not how they lived. Never speaking about what they stood for, their hopes their dreams their many accomplishments and how many lives they touched and were responsible for. DDO
I am truly sorry for the loss of so many officers! Statistics like this concern me more than many can imagine. Adding to this concern is the fact that I work for a 400 plus member department that has no true program in place to deal with the stresses in our job. Or those in our "normal" lives that affect us and our jobs! If possible, I would like to hear from other members of our law enforcement family about not only what causes the stress and feelings of desperation that lead to such high numbers of suicide, but also what in a perfect world we as a whole can do about it. Thank You, and Stay Safe! M7
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Posted by: posted on ABSEA today | March 26, 2008 at 05:26 PM
Re: LAPD suicide rate
This is all so sad. I saw it in my department too. Unfair treatment, "good ole boy club", preferential treatment, and not taking care of your officers when they needed and ask for help. I had to quit my department, resign, and am now unable to work and on disability. Some of my issues are physical and some are mental health issues that I have a feeling will never go away (PTSD/depression/ anxiety). I will soon be on my own with having to take SSI with no support, whatsoever, from my previous department. The physical issues were exasperated due to my 2 on-duty shootings, which control my mental health issues. My department would not recognize my PTSD as being "duty related." I guess my 2 shootings were not "duty related" either. I was treated wrong the whole time after the second shooting, even after taking a ricochet bullet off of my stomach. One month, 2 shootings, and my department just washed their hands of me.
Now I am paying approximately $1500 on medications alone. I have been so sick; I barely have time to live my life. I can't have a relationship anymore, because I can't explain my mood swings with my PTSD. Not to mention that I am unable to walk for long distances and have about every illness there is.
I went from a healthy, physical and mental, person to someone who is sick everyday of my life. In pain that most people would have given up on a long time ago. Yet I must move on everyday, without the dream job and life I had prior to my shootings. As you can tell, I am so bitter that I can hardly see sometimes when I talk about it.
I could so easily have given up anytime since 8/2002, but luckily I am too chicken and selfish to stop my life. I can, however, see how officers and soldiers have that thought and follow through. I am learning to help myself by continuing to strengthen my faith in God. This is the only thing that keeps me going!!!
We need to stop, listen, recognize PTSD as duty related, and help those people affected instead of leaving them fend for themselves.
OK, I am done for now. Thanks for listening.
Posted by: from Doc out of state LEO | March 27, 2008 at 12:40 PM
I don't think that I will win friends or influence people with my comments but I will make them. In my later days in the police force, the department employed a civilian psychologist full time to counsel officers suffering from stress, and he undoubtedly did a great job. And was busy. In these days many police take sick leave, suffering from stress. Police have, and still do, retire from my old force, on pensions, medically unfit, suffering from stress. Unfortunately I knew one, a woman officer, who retired medically unfit suffering from stress, took a pay-out of $150,000.00in lieu of a continuing pension, went into business and has thrived ever since. In my 40 years in the police force, I never suffered from stress. 23 of those years I was a street Detective of various ranks. In some of those years I was the chief of the Drug Squad, the Fraud Squad and other squads in my capital city, and of Police Districts bigger than Texas, USA, in other parts of my State. But for some reason (no, I was not a heartless bastard) I never got stressed. I worked as long as my shifts required, went home to a wonderful wife, and in earlier days until they married and left home, to a wonderful wife and two magnificent daughters, had many civilian friends but very few police friends in off duty hours, joined various service organisations, and no matter the cares of a working day, I turned off the moment I left work, and didn't think about police work again until 1 minute after I returned to duty. Maybe that is the answer. It seems to have been for me. They kept promoting me. Maybe I was very lucky. –Retired Aussie LEO
Posted by: posted on ABSEA | March 27, 2008 at 03:29 PM
Your right there Retired Aussie LEO, you have to be one of the Police Officers that didn't suffer from Stress. You said you had a great home life, well some of us didn't. I envy you for being able to handle the day to day shinnanagins of the local political fools, who thought they could run the Police Department but only added to the stress of the daily routine. I salute you for being able to put in the time that you did, and not
suffer from it. Some of us out here aren't built the same and suffer from
stress related illnesses. Some of us even get to the point where they can't
handle the murders, the bodies. the kids getting killed and dying in front
of you or in your arms. Doing that CPR and it not working and the family behind you crying and screaming. And then their are some of us that can't take it anymore and then take the iron and go to sleep the hard way, never to wake again. I for one can't take a kid getting hurt and seeing them cry over their dead parent or even a dead dog. And most of all I cry, yes real tears when a police officer gets killed in the line of duty. I cry when I hear
"Amazing Grace", played on the pipes. It hurts deeply as I know a fellow soldier a brother officer has died and is getting laid to rest. I admit that I am not that strong and I can't handle too much stress. They call it Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. There are days that I still can't get to sleep and still
the memory of what I've seen and done gives me shivers and nightmares.
Yes sir count your blessings, and no hard feelings. I salute
you again for being able to sustain the rigors of the job and are able to
talk about it with candor and diplomacy.
God Bless
Retired Jersey LEO
Posted by: posted on ABSEA | March 27, 2008 at 03:42 PM