The Crime and Arrest Statistics Summary is issued by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.   This publication is a summary of reported crimes, arrests, and the calls for service occurring within the Department’s jurisdiction. The information in this publication may vary from previously published figures. This is due to the continual updating of the records in the various automated data sources and efforts to present the most current data.

Crime Rates
Crime rates in this summary are based on a population of 10,000 rather than 100,000 as in the State of California and Federal Bureau of Investigation reports.   This makes the rates more significant in view of the population distribution in the various station and contract city areas.   The crime rate is calculated as follows:

Comparisons
Factors contributing to crime are numerous and vary from place to place.   Readers are cautioned against drawing conclusions from direct comparisons of crime figures between individual communities of similar populations and size.   In the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's jurisdiction, a population in excess of 2.9 million people, several factors affect the rate of crime.   

The factors include:
   • Crime reporting practices of citizens
   • Economic factors
   • Demographics of the population, including age, sex, race, and ethnicity
   • Population density and community characteristics:   commercial, educational, recreational, and       economic
   • Public attitude toward crime and law enforcement
   • Number of police employees per unit of population
   • Policies of prosecuting officials and courts

In evaluating percentage changes, consideration must be given to the dates during which changes took place, as well as the actual number of crimes upon which the percentage is based.

Population
2020 Unincorporated area and contract city population figures were obtained from the 2010 Census by the Los Angeles County Office of Urban Research among various other sources.  Prior Crime and Arrest Statistical Summary Publication population figures were based on projections provided by Clarita’s Corporation for the unincorporated areas, and projections provided by the California Department of Finance for the contract cities.  Due to the 2010 Census, current figures may significantly differ with previously published population projections.

Area
The square mileage of contract cities and unincorporated areas have been calculated by the Los Angeles County Office of Urban Research, using the County's Geographic Information System.

Part I Offenses
The Part I Offenses are used by law enforcement agencies in the United States to reveal the extent and trend of criminal activity.   Any significant change from the anticipated pattern of the figures alerts law enforcement administrators to possible problem areas.   The Part I Offenses are Criminal Homicide, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Larceny Theft, Grand Theft Auto, and Arson.

The Sheriff's Department tabulates Part I Offenses by Uniform Crime Report standards and maintains statistical files with regard to violations, locations of occurrences, arrests by age and sex of the offenders, and by disposition of incidents (cases).   Only the most serious classification is tabulated from reports with multiple classifications.   For example, if a suspect is charged with burglary and vandalism, only the burglary (the most serious crime) is counted.   However, if several persons together commit one crime, each person is counted in "Adults Arrested," but only one crime is counted in "Reported Incidents."   Thus, statistics maintained by each of the stations or bureaus may differ from those recorded in this summary.

Incident Counts
Homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults, and non-aggravated assaults are classified as crimes against persons and are counted by the number of victims.
 
All other incidents are classified as crimes against property and are counted once for each occurrence.

Community College Bureau crime incidents are reported separately to the Department of Justice per the CLERY Act, and are not included in Region or Department totals. 

County Services Bureau and Parks Bureau crime incidents and arrests are officially reported under the Sheriff’s station in which they occur.  County Services Bureau and Parks Bureau incidents occurring outside the jurisdiction of our Sheriff’s stations are not included in Department totals.  The pages in this publication for County Services Bureau and Parks Bureau are for informational purposes only.

Miscellaneous Units
This section contains crime and arrest activity for all specialized units not affiliated with patrol stations in Patrol Operations Divisions (i.e., Detective Division).

Percentage Comparisons
Whenever the availability of data permits, percentage changes are indicated.   These percentages reflect increases or decreases in the total number of incidents.

Stolen and Recovered Property
The monetary value of property stolen and recovered reflects only Part I offenses, as in past publications.