Homicide Rates Fall in Los Angeles; City On Pace to Have Record Low Murders Since 1968

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced on Wednesday that the city of Los Angeles is currently on pace to have the lowest number of homicides since 1968 – only 116 homicides being reported at the end of June.

“Reports show that Los Angeles is on pace for the lowest homicide total in 60 years,” said Mayor Bass in a statement. “Especially with the summer underway, we will continue to implement comprehensive safety strategies with law enforcement and community organizations to keep Angelenos safe. That means swiftly responding when crime happens and holding people accountable, while also working to prevent crime from happening in the first place.”

“Los Angeles is on pace for the lowest homicide rate in 60 years,” Bass added on X. “Especially with the summer underway, we will continue to implement comprehensive safety strategies to keep Angelenos safe.”

Overall, Los Angeles has been seeing a three-decade long decline in homicides, with homicides spiking in the riot year of 1992 when over 1,000 were recorded. Increased police, strategic patrol routes, plus specialized city and LAPD programs managed to bring the annual number of homicides down to just below 300 a year by the mid 2010s. However, a mixture of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased restlessness brought on by the death of George Floyd caused homicides to spike in the early 2020s. In 2021, just over 400 murders were reported in throughout the city.

With resources flowing back to the LAPD and COVID lockdown laws ending, murder rates once again began to fall. Former Mayor Eric Garcetti and current Mayor Bass have both claimed that their strategic programs are the main reason for the decline. Bass attributed the decline to Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) zones and other programs launched under her watch. In fact, Bass announced earlier this year that a 45% drop in gang-related homicides in GRYD zones compared to 2023, and a 56% decline compared to 2022, was seen as a direct result. Yet, despite their insistence, experts have said that the normalization of routines and activities following the end of the lockdown is the major cause of the decline of homicides nationwide. Los Angeles isn’t a special case. Major declines are everywhere.

According to the figures recorded through the end of June, only 116 homicides occurred in the city through the end of June, compared to 152 at the same time in 2024 and over 200 being reported in 2021. Should L.A. keep this pace up through the rest of the year, the city will have their lowest number of homicides since the late 1960’s, just before the rise of gang crime in the 1970s and 1980s.

“This is proof that when we make deep, intentional investments in community safety, we can create safer neighborhoods,” added L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “We must ensure the continued funding of community violence intervention across Los Angeles because we have the power to prevent harm before it occurs, rather than waiting to punish it once it’s already happened.”

Surprisingly, numbers this year so far didn’t spike with the anti-ICE riots and protests last month. While several injuries and nearly 600 arrests were recorded, not one homicide was tied with the event, unlike the 1992 riots which resulted in 63 murders and over 2,000 injuries in a span of only 5 days.

Another homicide update is likely to be announced by the LAPD in early October.