Recent statistics complied by the Long Beach Police Department confirm that many types of crime—including murder, rape and burglary—have increased in 2012. 

According to the LBPD, although robbery is down 2.5 percent from 2011 and aggravated assault is down 3.9 percent, murder is up 77.8 percent and rape is up 19.5 percent.

As for property crimes:

residential burglary: +13.9%
garage burglary: +62.9%
commercial burglary: +1.6%
grand theft: +3.1%
grand theft auto: +8.0%
auto larceny: +7.9%
petty theft > $50: -5.6%
petty theft < $50: +23.6%
bike theft: +5.5%
arson: -19.4%

During a recent interview on the local cable television show Straight Talk with Art Levine, LBPD Police Chief Jim McDonnell said that the current spike in crime was “predictable” considering the cuts the LBPD has suffered over the last three years, including a 20 percent decrease in the total number of officers on the force.

“I know that if we were able to go back to the number [of officers] that we had three years ago, we could turn that [current crime] trend around again,” McDonnell said.

Nonetheless, McDonnell told Levine that Long Beach is a comparatively safe city.

“[W]e’re very concerned with the direction that crime is going,” he said. “But when you look at where we are number-wise—[i.e.,] coming up from 2010 with 40-year lows [in crime]—over a period of 10 years or 20 years to say comparatively how are we, we’re still a very safe city.”