October 3, 2019
 
The Brentwood area of West LA is down 12% overall in total Part I crime (federally monitored and defined as the major crime categories) than at this same time last year.  In fact, the entire West LA area is down by 11.6% overall.

While it’s good to celebrate the successes, folks complain to me that they ‘never see police cars’ in their neighborhood.  Seeing police cars in your neighborhood is a double-edged sword.  To see frequent police cars patrolling your streets or responding to radio calls can often mean that you live in a neighborhood plagued with crime. Fortunately, Brentwood doesn’t live that way.  We don’t have high, or even moderate levels, of violent crime. We don’t routinely see officers in our neighborhood primarily because we don’t have the elevated level of crime that justifies that level of resources.

But rest assured, our West LA officers are out there.  We are in uniform and in plain clothes.  We are in marked black and white vehicles and in undercover vehicles.  We are working patrol, detectives, narcotics, vice, and specialized units.  We ARE on your streets, we ARE in your neighborhoods and we ARE working hard to keep you safe.  We are just forced to do more, with less.  And in that respect, it’s incredibly admirable that our West LA officers, that must respond to a 64-square mile area (the size of San Francisco), are able to do so much, and make such a difference, with so little. 

Believe me, as officers, we too want more officers to be out there to back us up when we need help.  Our West LA officers risk their lives every day knowing that back-up or help can be so far away and take so long to get to them if they’re in a fight for their lives. Also know that our West LA Commanding Officers are continually requesting our Department for additional officers and they spend a considerable amount of time advocating for resources towards the safety of the West LA community and for their officers. But rest assured, Brentwood is still one of the safest communities in all of LA and we should take some considerable measure of comfort in that.

All the best,
Maria