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January 1st

For many New Year’s Day is one of hope. And for all our collective efforts Rose Park Neighborhood’s hope was put to the challenge this year.

We experienced two serious events just as the year started. Some of you may not be aware of these incidents – here is the Police Department press release. Eastside Commander Herzog met with Gretchen Swanson, President RPNA about January 1st and other neighborhood concerns earlier this week. He followed up this conversation with a written review of the events that occurred on January 1st and what has happened since, as well as what is known. This is included below in its entirety. As you will see, additional information is needed to effectively proceed with this investigation. This level of communication and interaction is appreciated by the neighborhood association.

It is important to put these events in context and many may be aware of the declining violent crimes, i.e. murder episodes in Long Beach. There was a general email put forward by Mayor Garcia and Chief Luna (seen at end of this post). Some may want to delve into Police policies more deeply as you consider all of this. These can be found at the LB Police Department website.

Finally, Commander Herzog will be at our Rose Park Neighborhood Community Meeting Wednesday January 24th from 7:00pm-8:30pm at the Red Leprechaun (Termino & Anaheim). He will be addressing the events and follow-up of January 1st and where to get updates; as well as, crime trends in LB and the debut of a more robust and usable crime database, and how to inform the police of a crime in progress (911) versus chronic situations ( LBPDEast@longbeach.gov). For important numbers to have on hand – check out the last page of our new Directory and print it out.

Here is Commander Herzog’s report of January 1st (as of end of day January 4, 2018)

On December 31, just before midnight officers from our South Division were responding a report of a hit and run around 7th Street and Orange.  The witness provided a description of the car and a license plate to dispatchers.  The responding officers located the car described by the witness around 4th Street and Freeman.  They tried to make a traffic stop and although the driver initially stopped she later drove away leading them on a short pursuit.  When the car finally came to a stop the driver refused to exit.  This lead to a larger response of officers to deal with a barricaded person.  Ultimately the suspect was taken into custody without incident for hit and run and grand theft auto.

Officers were still working through the pursuit incident when they received a report of shots fired with multiple people struck around 6th Street and Temple.  When officers arrived, they located an adult male who had been struck in the torso and lower body by gunfire.  The victim was taken to a local hospital where he later died from his injuries.  This case is still under investigation by the Homicide Detail.

The initial reports were the victim, who does not live in the area, was in the area for one of the many New Year’s Eve celebrations.  At some point, he left the gathering and became involved in an argument in the alley.  The argument resulted in gun fire.  Investigators are still piecing together what proceeded the argument. However, many of the witnesses that were present are not cooperating making the investigation more difficult.  We do not yet know if this crime was gang related.  The information we have so far is this was not a random act of violence but some existing disagreement between two people.

If you have any questions about either of the two incidents or anything else occurring in the area please feel free to call me or email me.
Thank you.
Erik Herzog
Commander – East Division Patrol
562-570-5558
Erik.Herzog@longbeach.gov

Email from Mayor Garcia’s office received January 3, 2018

Today I joined our Long Beach Chief of Police to announce Long Beach ended 2017 with the lowest number of murders recorded in our city’s history.

We saw a 33% reduction in murders from 2016 to 2017. There were 22 murders in 2017, down from 33 recorded in 2016. We know every victim had a family and each incident is tragic. As always, our Long Beach Police Department is committed to bringing justice to each family.

The city has become dramatically safer in the last decades thanks to the men and women of the LBPD and our amazing community partnerships. Policing alone does not reduce crime. We have to thank all of the incredible work done in our local schools, our libraries, our parks, and our partners in the community. Organizations like Centro CHA, Building Healthy Communities, and the Long Beach Community Action Partnership are organizing throughout the city. In addition, dozens of neighborhood watch groups and community neighborhood associations are on the front lines every day to prevent violence.

We also appreciate local residents for supporting Measure A: These funds have improved and restored many of our public safety functions, including the restoration of the Police South Division. We have kept our average response time for police priority calls down to 4.8 minutes, one of the fastest of any large city in America.  We want our residents to know when they call 9-1-1, our public safety officials are ready to serve and protect when needed.

I am proud of the work done by our Police Department, and especially want to thank Chief Luna for his leadership. As Mayor, improving safety is something I think about everyday and I look forward to seeing these improvements continue in years to come.

Go Long Beach!

Mayor Robert Garcia

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