On January 26, at a town hall organized by Councilmember Robert Garcia in response to resident concerns about an apparent spike in criminal and gang activity on the West Side, LBPD West Division Commander Josef Levy made a promise to residents: “I’m asking all of you to give me three months. Three months and you’ll see a significant difference.”

Three months later, that change does not appear to have come. And city officials seem unwilling to talk about it.

Immediately following the publication of my article on the town hall, I contacted Cmdr. Levy to set up an interview with him for this follow-up piece (which I planned after hearing his “three months” pledge to residents). But although at that time he committed to an interview, when contacted for this piece, Levy declined to discuss the situation.

But Levy is not the only one. Garcia, whose 1st District contains neighborhoods (e.g., the Washington Middle School area) at the center of resident concerns, declined repeated requests for comment on the situation; and Councilmember Dee Andrews, whose 6th District contains other pertinent neighborhoods, did not reply to similar requests. Mayor Foster also did not reply to a Long Beach Post request.

The Post alsosolicited comment from various resident groups within the West Division, but several expressed a wariness to speak on the record, though all who replied concurred that there has been no significant change over the last three months (an evaluation supported by the LBPD’s own crime statistics). “[I]t has taken us many, many years for the communities — and the LBPD — to feel comfortable working with us” said one individual in expressing reservations about “stick[ing] our necks out” by speaking on the record. “While we put the neighborhoods first and foremost, it is still our task to work with the LBPD and our council offices.”

One resident willing to go on the record was Annie Greenfeld, co-founder of Better Balance for Long Beach, whose mission is to improve 14th Street Park area. Greenfeld, who has lived in the Wrigley area since 1999, says she does not blame the LBPD for the area’s crime problems — though her assessment of City Hall is far less kind.

“I think the police are doing everything they can,” she says. “But you have to realize what the budget has done. There are not enough police on the street. […] I don’t blame the police; I blame the people making the spending decisions. […] We’re not getting the services they deserve. […] I mean, there are 880 cops for a city of a half-million people? We should be way over 1,000 cops. […] I think [Levy] thought it [i.e., significant improvement] wouldn’t take as long. I do see a little bit of improvement, but not enough to make a significant difference. I think he was hopeful.”

Greenfeld has only high praise for Levy and hypothesizes that his refusal to speak to the Post for this article may have come from his superiors within city government — components of the City she says are not historically as communicative as Levy.

“Cmdr. Levy has always been really open with the community,” says Greenfeld. “If he’s not talking, I think it has to come from higher up in the food chain. […] I can honestly say he is the most open commander we’ve ever had. And he works really, really hard. […] If Joe Levy isn’t talking, maybe it’s coming from the Chief’s office […] or the Mayor’s office.”

As it happens, in declining to speak with the Post, Levy referred the Post to Chief McDonnell’s office and to the LBPD’s Public Information Office, neither of which replied to requests for comment.

Whether the four shootings on the West Side last Sunday (including a fatality and two that are being investigated as gang-related) are coincidental to the timing of this article, or whether they are the latest indications of an unremedied trend, is unclear. But it seems that since the January town hall the crime situation in the West Division — as with the city in general — has not improved.

Whatever is happening, city officials are less willing to talk about it than they were three months ago.

Click here to view our policies covering Robert Garcia and the Long Beach city council.