West LAPD Crime Report, Improvement to 911 and non-emergency on-hold times, online reporting, and Asian Hate Crimes are on the Rise

Click here to view West LAPD’s Basic Car Crime Report 03/07/21 to 03/13/21.

Click here for notice.

PRACTICE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS:

In LAPD’s Wilshire Division, they recently had a series of robberies involving victims wearing Rolex watches and other flashy, expensive jewelry — they had 9 robberies so far.

West LA had a male and female sitting in car, a suspect approached them with a gun and demanded their money and jewelry — the victims didin’t have anything on them at the time — the suspect got into the back seat of the car and forced them to drive to an ATM and forced them to withdraw money.

You have to be “situationally aware” at all times. When you’re out in the public, you need to be looking around being aware of your surroundings, aware of who is walking toward you, being just aware how you appear (do you appear to be a target?).

LAPD Communications Division Improves on-hold wait times for 911 and LAPD non-emergency number

Wait times have been significantly reduced on 911 and LAPD non-emergency numbers. Late in 2020, LAPD was able to purchase and install a new communications system to replace the old antiquated system.

This newer system allows LAPD to see the type of calls coming in and it gave an updated format that allowed operators to more efficiently filter and transfer calls when necessary.

Previously, operators found that on the non-emergency line, callers were upset with the wait time, hanging up and then calling the 911 number to relay things that were non-emergency calls. This practice caused increased on-hold wait time for 911.

Under the new system, calls received from January 1 through February 28th, the wait times were reduced to an 11-second hold time for 911, and a 3-4 minute on-hold wait time for the LAPD non-emergency number. Previously, LAPD non-emergency calls had an on-hold wait time of 40 minutes.

Tip: The hearing impaired squelching can be avoided if callers press the 1 for English, or 2 for Spanish.

Click here for PDF version of the LAPD Online Police Reporting Policy.

Asian and Pacific Islander Hate Crimes on the Rise

There is a report that just came out that there has been a 30% increase in anti-Asian crimes and incidents being reported.

In 2020, there have been 3,800 reports nationwide of anti-Asian crimes. Although no one knows exactly why there is this rise but some factors may include COVID, political polarization or other factors that makes it hard to speculate.

Culturally and traditionally, in the Asian culture, it is not typical for victims to complain. Even with the 30% increase, there is reason to believe that many incidents are not being reported. A working group has been organized by LAPD with other Asian groups to put together a resource card in different languages that will give resources for mental health counseling, health centers, legal aid, domestic violence and suicide prevention. The resource card will also include how to report a hate crime or a hate incident.

These resource cards are nothing new. LAPD has prepared cards for other cultures and communities in Los Angeles, including our Hispanic and our LBGTQ communities. There has not been one prepared for the Asian community so that is why LAPD taking action.

There are hate crimes and hate incident and both can be reported to LAPD, where officers will take a report for either or both.

So when you’re walking down the street, whether you’re white, black, Hispanic, LBGTQ or whatever group to which you relate, if someone comes up and they call you an ethnic slur or something that is based on the way you look, religion, or perceived ethnicity — just the racial slur or epithet itself — would be considered a hate incident. So, you certainly are entitled to report that to LAPD and that gives LAPD, while they cannot investigate it as a crime, it gives them an idea of what is happening within our city.

Hate incidents can lead to hate crimes.

LAPD is encouraging people to report those incidents.

Note: If you are the vicitm of a hate incident and LAPD officers respond and say there is nothing they can do, ask to speak to their supervisior — it is really that simple. The supervisor will understand the policy.