New LAPD Tally May Cut Gang-Killing Score

The Los Angeles Police Department, unhappy with its own widely fluctuating statistics on gang violence during the last three months, is on the verge of changing the way it counts gang homicides.

Since the early 1970s, the LAPD has counted a homicide “gang-related” if either the killer or the victim was a gang member, regardless of motive.

Under the method that Chief Daryl F. Gates is expected to approve today, LAPD would emphasize a new set of statistics computing “gang-motivated” killings directly linked to gang activity.

While LAPD officials say the change in compiling gang statistics is being proposed as a way to more accurately measure gang crime, they concede that “gang-motivated” statistics could be up to 50% lower than current “gang-related” tallies.

Los Angeles has developed a reputation as the most gang-troubled metropolitan area in the nation, with 387 gang-related homicides in the county last year. There were 205 slayings in the city.

In the view of some top LAPD officials, the reputation partly has been fostered by the way the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have kept their statistics--counting virtually every killing by a gang member as gang-related whether the death came in a traffic fatality or in a domestic quarrel.

In contrast, some other major U.S. cities, including New York and Detroit, have kept no gang homicide statistics. Chicago, with a major gang problem, counts only those cases where gang members were involved in homicides that were clearly part of organized gang activity, as opposed to a personal act of violence.

Deputy LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks, in charge of tracking gang statistics for the department, said he began thinking of a possible change early this year after he took over command of operations in LAPD’s headquarters bureau.

Parks, denying any effort to manipulate the image of Los Angeles as the nation’s most gang-troubled city by switching statistics, said the proposed change was prompted primarily by the need to provide Gates with accurate information about the true scope of gang violence.

He said that if Gates approves the proposed changes, LAPD will continue to count gang crimes two ways--using “gang-related” figures to provide statistical continuity while increasingly relying on “gang-motivated” statistics as the best measure of gang crime.

“Our intent is not to manipulate,” Parks said. “We have had some concerns in trying to figure out how to most accurately report gang crime. The question for us has been whether to keep doing something we don’t really feel good about.”

According to Parks, LAPD’s statistical reevaluation began in January when the department first began counting “gang-motivated” crimes in addition to those categorized as “gang-related.”

Widening Gap

Month after month, the gap between the two categories widened. As of Sept. 30, the LAPD had counted 174 homicides as “gang-related,” but only 93 of those were classified as “gang-motivated.”

While Parks was still studying LAPD’s statistics problem, he said, he was presented early this month with “gang-related” homicide statistics for September that raised doubts about earlier statistics showing a drop in gang killings in August and July.

In early September, LAPD had released statistics showing a 50% decrease in gang killings in South-Central Los Angeles in August and July, causing the number of “gang-related” killings in Los Angeles to drop for the first time in 1988 below 1987 figures.

The August figures, however, did not include 29 homicides throughout the city that were still being studied, Parks learned in early October. By the end of September, 10 of those had been classified as “gang-related,” and the gang murder rate was officially up again by 12.3% over the same period in 1987.

Anticipating questions from news media, Parks sent Gates a memo explaining the problem and warning: “Be Prepared.” The memo, according to an LAPD source, led to a meeting between Parks and Gates that was described as “mutually embarrassing.” From that meeting emerged the decision to move faster toward the “gang-motivated” statistics.

“We have been getting some bizarre situations that are being counted as gang-related crimes,” Parks said. “For example, a gang member goes home, gets in an argument with his wife and she attacks him. He’s a victim who is a gang member, so it’s counted as a gang-related crime. In truth, it’s a domestic quarrel that doesn’t really affect the community.”

Example Given

Explaining how LAPD intends to differentiate between “gang-related” and “gang-motivated” crimes in the future, Parks used the example of a gang member who, for his own personal gain and independent of his gang affiliation, robs a liquor store and shoots the clerk.

“That would be gang-related, but probably not gang-motivated,” Parks said. “On the other hand, if he went into the store with gang members to extort the clerk and shouted out gang slogans, it might be considered gang-motivated.”

Parks said most domestic quarrels involving gang members also will not qualify as “gang-motivated,” although they will continue to be recorded as “gang-related” in LAPD’s dual system of gang statistics.

“If two gang members are in a dispute over who gets the last of the cocaine and it’s not a gang issue for anybody else, then it’s not gang-motivated,” Parks said. “On the other hand, most drive-by shootings would be gang-motivated. There’s a lot of subjectivity involved. What we’re trying to do is measure the gang crimes that most affect the community.”

Besides approving the shift in emphasis for LAPD, Parks said, Gates will be asked to notify a special committee of the Los Angeles County Peace Officers Assn. that the department is switching its statistical approach and to urge that the committee adopt a similar position.

The committee, created after a law enforcement “gang summit” called by Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block last February, recently completed its own study on how law enforcement agencies should best keep gang crime statistics--essentially recommending the “gang-related” approach now being de-emphasized by LAPD.

Seeking Uniformity

“We’re going to recommend that the committee reconvene if necessary,” Parks said. “We feel a little chagrined that we sat there as part of the committee and felt comfortable with the old system. But we’ve changed our position on this now, and we feel it would be beneficial if we could still achieve uniformity.”

Reaction to the pending LAPD switch was mixed. Some gang experts questioned the wisdom of changing the criteria for measuring gang crimes, while other officials said the most important need throughout the county is simply to have a uniform standard.

While arguing that the “gang-related” approach used in the past by both the LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department remains a valid system for measuring the violence caused by gangs in Los Angeles, Sheriff Block said he believes that other law enforcement agencies in the county will listen seriously to any LAPD proposal for change.

“I don’t see any problem in reconvening. If they are consistent, that’s the important thing,” Block said. “I would rather alter our statistics in favor of a standardized process than hold fast to our own past practices.

“The problem hasn’t really been with LAPD or the Sheriff’s Department,” Block added. “One thing that became quite evident at our initial gang summit meeting was that some police departments in the county have been willfully distorting their statistics. Some chiefs admitted doing so because of political pressures in their community.” Block declined to identify the departments. GANG-RELATED HOMICIDES: 1977-1987

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 of this year, the LAPD has classified 174 homicides as “gang related”--committed by gang members. But under the proposed LAPD criteria, only 93 of these killings could be correctly described as “gang-motivated,” resulting directly from gang tensions.

Under the LAPD’s “gang-related” criteria, homicides have risen from 69 in 1977 to 205 last year.