Los Angeles News

LOS ANGELES The crime and violence rates on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles have been unaffected by a $6 million effort by the Los Angeles Police Department to reduce crime there, according to a study by the UCLA Law
College.

However, a police official disputed the study, saying the LAPD's Safer Cities Initiative has resulted in a steeper drop in crime than anywhere else in the city.

The study, "Policing Our Way Out of Homelessness," released Friday, says the overall level of crime and violence has decreased, but no faster than the citywide decrease in crime.

"While there was a reduction in overall crime in Skid Row, it was strikingly similar to the reduction seen in areas outside the initiative's focus," said UCLA law professor Gary Blasi, the study's author and a long-time homeless activist.

"Importantly, our study shows there was no statistically significant effect on serious, violent crime in Skid Row, with the exception of a very small effect as to the crime of robbery," he said.

Blasi called the LAPD's Safer Cities Initiative "one of the most targeted concentrations of police resources in the world outside of Baghdad."

The $6 million program, begun in 2006, placed up to 80 more officers on
Skid Row.

The study tracked arrest rates in the 50-square-block area southeast of downtown, where flop houses and service centers serve the area's poor and homeless, who are also preyed upon by muggers and drug pushers.

According to the study, each officer arrested an average of just one serious criminal a year, or seven of every 1,000 arrests by the task force. The other arrests were for lesser crimes.

"That's not the way we see it," said LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz.

He said that during 2007, which was the first full year of the initiative, major crimes in the Central Division area, which includes Skid Row, went down 30 percent, which was the largest crime drop of any area of the city, and nearly three times the overall crime drop.

"There's been a significant reduction in crime, which enhances the quality of life for people living and working in the area," he said. "Because of SCI, we have created conditions where it's more likely that people can get help for problems, including substance abuse problems, and are much less likely to be victimized by people who prey on them."

He said the initiative has also cut down on illicit drug peddling in the area.

"Our view is that having wide open street sales, which was the status quo before, doesn't make for an appropriate environment to recover and get the help they need for substance abuse and mental illness," he said.

"It also needs to be stated that people who work in that area, many at minimum wage jobs, now can go to work in a cleaner and safer evironment, as well as schoolchildren," he added.

The Safer Cities Initiative was supposed to match the $6 million spent on police services with an equal amount for social services, but that promise
that was not fulfilled, Blasi asserted.

"The enforcement component was delivered swiftly, with 50 additional patrol officers and 25 to 30 additional narcotics officers and mounted police assigned to the 50 blocks of Skid Row," the law professor said. "The enhancement part of the equation -- more shelter, drug treatment and services for homeless people with mental disabilities -- never materialized."

"We in the police department have tried to do our job, and we don't apologize for that, whether other people, agencies or institutions fulfill their obligations," Diaz said.

He added that police officers met with Blasi about a year ago, and that he expressed opposition to the Safer Cities Initiative before conducting the study.

"He opposed SCI before crunching his numbers," Diaz said. "It appears they are not conclusions of a study but positions he held prior to the analysis."

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)