LOS ANGELES () — Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday announced a significant decrease in violent crime in Los Angeles, highlighting new statistics that show sharp declines in homicides both citywide and in neighborhoods historically affected by gang violence.
Bass joined members of the L.A. City Council and community leaders to release the updated crime data, which includes a 27% drop in homicides in areas known as Gang Reduction and Youth Development zones – or GRYD zones.
Those are areas long recognized as among the hardest hit by gang-related violence, according to the city.
Citywide, homicides fell 19% last year, reaching their lowest level since 1966.
“It took many, many years to reach this point here, where I can proudly stand up and say that we have had a very significant reduction in crime,” Bass said at a morning news conference.
The mayor attributed the progress to the work of her Office of Community Safety and the city’s violence-prevention programs.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to do at the federal level, but at least at the state, county and local levels and the local philanthropy, we need to make sure that they understand how important this work is and what a tremendous achievement it is to drop the number of homicides down to the levels that we haven’t seen since the 1960s,” Fernando Rejón, executive director of the Urban Peace Institute, said at the news conference.
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