Councilmembers Al Austin, Rex Richardson, Lena Gonzalez and Roberto Uranga all recently requested a report from the police department in regard to gun violence within the past year.
The councilmembers hope the report will give insight into how to reduce gun violence over the next several months and what the council could do to further support LBPD on the issue.
It was during the May 17 city council meeting that a 7-2 vote approved the creation of the police report, which will be presented to councilmembers within 90 days, according to 7th District Councilmember Uranga.
“All crime is a crime of opportunity, and we need to make a sound investment in our communities,” Uranga said in an email statement to the Signal Tribune. “We need to inform our residents to be more aware, lock doors, see something, say something and call the police to report suspicious behavior.”
In 2014, Long Beach ended the year with a 40-year low in violent crime, said LBPD Deputy Chief Richard Rocchi at the May 17 city council meeting. He noted, however, that in 2015 and 2016, violent crime began to “rebound.”
Statistically, the city has experienced a 13.1-percent increase in violent crime through April, a 42-percent increase in shootings compared to this time last year and an 83.3-percent increase in murders compared to this time last year, as well, according to Rocchi.
Rocchi stressed that a majority of the crimes are gang related. “That’s where we’re focusing our attention to impact on these crimes,” he said.
The chief added that the police department is deploying many strategies— many of which will be included in the upcoming report— to combat elevated crimes. These strategies include seizure of guns, of which 186 have been confiscated to date, and attempts to interfere and impact the source of funding for gang operations.
“Although our police department does a great job with the lack of resources that we have, we still need to really elevate [the issue] and keep it relevant,” 1st District Councilmember Gonzalez said in a phone interview with the Signal Tribune. “There still are these pockets where gangs still exist. Kids are getting recruited into gangs right from elementary and middle school.”
Gonzalez attributes many of the crimes to poverty. She said 40 percent of families in central Long Beach are under the poverty line and that although numbers have gone down recently, there is still upwards of 16 percent of people in the area that are unemployed.
“There are no jobs,” she said. “They don’t feel like they have a sense of positive direction where they are at, and they resort, unfortunately, to these issues. They are going to continue to cycle violence. It’s just not going to be good. That’s my reasoning for this and any type of ordinance we put going forward.”
Uranga echoed Gonzalez’s thoughts. He also added that, in addition to tackling the local issue on gun violence in the city, the situation needs to be addressed on a broader scale across the nation.
“We also need a comprehensive plan to tackle the roots of crime: poverty, jobs, truancy, education,” Uranga said. “We need to address the elephant in the room and talk about gun control.
There are a few bills currently in the state legislature that address ammunition, assault weapons and tightening rules on gun lending, to mention a few. While these measures may not stop gun violence, it will place stricter rules on the purchase and use of guns, which could drastically decrease the occurrence of gun violence.”
California Attorney General Kamala Harris and attorneys general of 12 other states and the District of Columbia recently sent a letter to both houses of Congress to urge them to direct funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in order to research causes and prevention of gun-related violence, according to a press release from Harris’s office.
The press release stated that while more than half a million Americans have died from gun violence within the past 20 years, federal funding for gun-violence research has been cut by about 96 percent.
“Gun violence terrorizes our communities and threatens our public safety,” Harris said. “As attorney general, I see the devastating impact of gun violence every day. I urge congress to lift the restriction on funding research into the causes of gun violence— which will promote public safety and save lives.”
Technology is another proposed solution. The City has installed security cameras, and Gonzalez has suggested adding even more to high-crime areas.
“I think it’s important we look at technology as a really strong component to this,” she said. “I think there are some opportunities in working with our school districts in adding cameras to some of our high-crime areas, especially in places where kids are always walking to and from school.
There have been some shootings in the daytime, when kids are getting out of school, so I think it’s also good to get the school district on board in talking about how we can add technology, add lighting and creating easier walking paths for kids.”
But the council won’t know how to properly address elevated violent crime until the police report is presented. Data becomes a factor in approaching the issue.
“We need to get a handle on the crime data as it relates to gun usage,” Uranga told the Signal Tribune. “All council districts are affected, and councilmembers have a vested interest in what the data reveals and the public safety of their communities.”
It was the concern with the community that prompted Austin to bring up the matter of elevated violence in the first place.
In an email statement to the Signal Tribune, Austin said the council will continue to work with the Public Safety Committee, the LBPD and the community to “come up with realistic solutions that get guns off our streets and out of the wrong hands.”
He believes the City could do better.
“We’ve experienced an increase in violent gun crime in some areas of the city, which has been very unsettling for many of us as city council members and residents, as well,” Austin said during the city council meeting. “I know gun violence is down if we look at the past 20 years, but we are experiencing an uptick. From my perspective, any gun violence is too much gun violence. We can and should do better.”
