At a regular West Hollywood Public Safety Commission Meeting on July 10, 2023, West Hollywood Sheriff’s Sergeant Jason Duron provided the commission with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department report for the month June where he reported that there was an approximate 30% drop in Part One crimes for the month of June this year, compared to last year.
The full report has been transcribed below:
For the month of June 2023, West Hollywood personnel responded to 1,815 calls for service, 104 calls being an emergency response requiring lights and sirens. Deputies made 70 felony arrests, and 110 misdemeanor arrests. West Hollywood station Part One crimes were down in the city for the month of June with 243 incidents when compared to June of 2022 that had 355. That was approximately 30% drop from one year to the next.
Part one crime breakdown by district: The West District accounted for 55% of Part One crimes–103 for total, the city center was 20%, with 48 incidents total, and the Eastend, 25%, with 61 incidents total.
In comparison, last year, the West District was down 46%, the City Center was down 18% and the East District was up 32%.
Overall, the crime numbers are driven by theft related incidents, grand theft, petty theft, and vehicle burglaries. That accounts for the majority of the part one crimes in June with 160 incidents total.
There were 59 pickpocket incidents in the month of June that occurred in the rainbow district. Our special teams continue to do [outreach] with local businesses to make them aware of the problem. We also have plans to have special operations done within the rainbow district to try to combat these types of crimes in our nightlife venues.
During the month of June, there were three reports of sexual assaults. All of these incidents are being investigated by detectives actively.
There were 12 grand theft auto, or stolen vehicle incidents for the month of June. Five of those vehicles had been recovered, and arrests were made in two of those cases.
We have 30 vehicle break-ins during the month of June. The majority of these vehicle burglaries involves someone leaving property in plain sight in their vehicle. We would like to remind owners to leave their vehicles locked and to hide personal items that they leave behind. Also avoid leaving vehicles running and unattended for any amount of time.
In June, we had five catalytic converter thefts. Although this number is very low, this type of crime is still continuing throughout the county. This past Saturday, on July 8, the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station staff with the Cops Teams and the EPT teams combined, hosted a free catalytic converter etching event. The event ran for four hours and we were able to etch 90 vehicles in that time period.
Traffic related incidents for the month of June, we had 13 DUI arrests, seven of which involve a traffic collision. On June 28th, there was a vehicle versus pedestrian collision. The driver of the vehicle was found to be at fault for failing to yield to the pedestrian. On June 3, we had a vehicle versus bicyclist collision that occurred. The bicyclist was found to be at fault for an unsafe lane change. On June 6, there was a vehicle versus E-Scooter collision. The driver of the vehicle was found to be at fault for opening their door into traffic.
Some of the notable incidents for the month of June during the pride celebration that pride weekend, the information that I obtained was from our emergency operations Bureau which handled the overall command of the facilities that weekend. They reported that there was very few incidents that were reported to us within those venues which included the street fair, the parade, and the music festival. There were four total incidents and most of them were just disturbances of some type. There were no arrests made in conjunction with those incidents. We did have one arrest that was made within the street fair and that involved a suspect that was wanted for a warrant and we spoke about that last time.
Throughout that entire weekend, deputies were extremely visible throughout the entire event, including the parade. During the parade, deputies encountered some protesters. The deputies were present and allowed the protesters to make their demonstrations while keeping the environment safe. No arrests were made in conjunction with those protesters.
On June 24, at 1:30 in the morning, a security guard at a local bar observed a suspect pickpocket a person that was standing on the sidewalk. The security guard was able to follow the suspect while calling the sheriff’s station. When the deputies arrived they were able to identify the suspect and arrest them. and then we also recovered the stolen cell phone. We can tribute this to how some of the guidance that our deputies have been doing outreach with with these local bars and clubs and talking to them about being vigilant in the area as well as inside their venues, looking for these pickpocketers.
On June 28 of this past month, our station had a volunteer meeting with Captain Mulder being present. During that meeting, Captain molder honored to have our volunteers for donating 500 hours of service and two additional volunteers for donating over 1000 hours of service. These types of volunteers that come to our station and donate all these hours are a huge asset. They donate quite a bit of their time to the station and their community. Starting next month, we would like to include the total number of hours donated by our volunteers in this report so that you guys are aware of how much time has been donated with our station volunteers.
The volunteer program is an exceptional program, for those who want to get back to their community and recognizing their work is extremely important to us and should be recognized here at this commission.
Our Community Academy is moving forward with a start date in late August and it’ll run through October. The Academy will be open to all community members. The academy gives an in-depth look at our daily operations of the sheriff’s station as well as other specialized units that work hand-in-hand with us to keep our community safe. The academy is extremely beneficial and informative to those who want to learn more about law enforcement. I would encourage all of the commissioners to attend, if possible, if not the entire session, some of the selected sessions would be also open to you to attend.
