Crime data shows that more people are being robbed at gunpoint around Los Angeles in 2021, and the increase is even more pronounced in Hollywood and Mid-City, where several recent holdups and shootings along Melrose Avenue were captured on security video.
“Robberies are essentially flat,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the LA Police Commission Tuesday, referencing a City-wide, overall count that shows the total number of robberies between January 1 and September 15, 2021 is nearly the same as the number tallied during the same months in 2020.
The Department’s crime reports show, however, that the number of robberies in which guns are used have increased by approximately 16-percent, from 1,092 in 2020 to 1,271 in 2021.
In the LAPD’s Wilshire and Hollywood Divisions, the patrol stations responsible for Melrose and the surrounding areas, crime data shows the increase is far more significant, with a 65-percent jump in the the number of robberies with guns in 2021 than in 2020.
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The Division captains weren’t available Wednesday to address the increase or discuss what was being done to address them.
The I-Team reported in July that crime data has also shown more people are being shot during robberies than in years past.
