Good Morning. On March 13th, LAPD Officer Elizabeth Velasco was involved in a horrific, off-duty car accident. Officer Velasco sustained severe injuries to her neck and spine. The road to recovery will be a long one. Her rehabilitation will require long hours of extensive physical therapy which can become financially exhausting. Click here to help support Officer Velasco's recovery. Law Enforcement News Police Defunded: Major Cities Feeling The Loss Of Police Funding As Murders, Other Crimes Soar Cities in parts of the U.S. that slashed their police department funding last year, in part as a result of police-involved shootings, have seen an uptick in certain crimes over the past year, according to data analyzed by Fox News. Cities such as Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas, have shifted funds from police departments to social services programs. Such cuts have led some departments to lay off officers, cancel recruiting classes or retreat from hiring goals. As police departments were left to make do with shrunken budgets and less support, some big cities have seen sometimes drastic upticks in murders and other violent crimes, a Fox News crime analysis found. The "defund the police" movement is not necessarily about gutting police department budgets -- though some groups have tried. And budget cuts were already expected as a result of alternate needs for funding because of the coronavirus pandemic. While Fox News could not immediately find a month-by-month breakdown in crime statistics, the LAPD reported a 38% increase in murders in 2020, despite the coronavirus mandates that kept residents indoors. And for 2021, murders are up 28.3% as of March 13, with 77 killings reported this year to date compared to the 60 reported during the same time in 2020, statistics show. The number of shooting victims nearly doubled, from 157 reported through March 13, 2020, compared to this year’s 303. Aggravated assaults were also up 8.4% during this time, from 3,395 to 3,132, statistics show. FOX News Suspected DUI Panorama City Crash Kills Woman, 25; Arrest Of 19-Year-Old Expected A 19-year-old man was expected to be arrested on suspicion of DUI after his vehicle rear-ended another — killing one woman and injuring three people, including the suspect, authorities said. The crash was reported at 11:20 p.m. Sunday, March 28, on the 9500 block of Van Nuys Boulevard in Panorama City, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Nicholas Prange. Firefighters used hydraulic tools to free one person from wreckage, and paramedics took four to hospitals, Prange said. Three were in critical condition and one was in fair condition, he said. One of the patients, a 25-year-old woman, was pronounced dead at a hospital, said Officer A. Delatorre of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Operations Center. The woman was in a vehicle that stopped at a traffic light, Delatorre said. A vehicle driven by the 19-year-old man slammed into the rear of the vehicle, he said. The 19-year-old man was one of the hospitalized patients and would be taken into custody for suspicion of DUI, police said. Los Angeles Daily News Suspect Sought In Deadly Hit-and-Run In Vermont Square Neighborhood A pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run crash in the Vermont Square area of South Los Angeles and the suspect was at large Thursday. The crash was reported about 10:45 p.m Wednesday near Normandie Avenue and 42nd Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Traffic Division. Carlos Deleon 53, of Los Angeles died at the scene, the coroner’s office reported. A news photographer at the scene said Deleon was in a crosswalk at the time of the crash. Detectives canvassed the area for surveillance video of the area to try to identify the suspect vehicle. Anyone with information on the case was asked to call the LAPD’s South Traffic Division at 323-421-2577. MyNewsLA.com LAPD: Man’s Hanging Death In Exposition Park Area Determined To Be A Suicide A man was found Thursday morning hanging from a tree in an Exposition Park neighborhood, and his death was determined to be a suicide, police said. Officers responded about 4:20 a.m. to the area of 36th Street and Arlington Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Officer Jader Chaves of the LAPD’s Media Relations division said Thursday afternoon that the man’s death was confirmed as a suicide. MyNewsLA.com Police Stop Suspect With Loaded Gun Near Venice Boardwalk A suspect with a loaded gun was stopped near the Venice Beach Boardwalk, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Police say they found the suspect with a loaded pistol during a traffic stop in the area of Pacific Avenue and 17th Avenue. No further suspect or incident information has been released. "We remain committed in our efforts to thwarting gun violence," police said in a Twitter statement on Wednesday. Venice Current Driver Taken Into Custody After Brief Pursuit Ends In Hollywood Crash A driver was taken into custody Thursday after leading police on a brief pursuit that ended in a crash in Hollywood. According to police, the pursuit began at about 4:50 p.m. in the 1600 block of North Formosa Avenue after officers with the Los Angeles Police Department noticed the driver was stealing license plates off of other vehicles. The driver then left the scene in a BMW SUV with alleged cold plates — license plates that do not match the vehicle. The driver then crashed into another vehicle at the intersection of Franklin and Highland avenues. No injuries were reported, though the crash prompted the closure of Franklin Avenue between Highland Avenue and North Orange Drive. The driver was taken into custody, police said. CBS 2 Auto Parts Thefts Increase In Los Angeles The city of Los Angeles recorded the highest number of auto-parts thefts for a single month in at least 11 years in January, according to a report released Thursday. There were 471 such crimes reported in the first month of the year, according to Crosstown, a nonprofit news organization based out of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, in partnership with the Integrated Media Systems Center at the Viterbi School of Engineering. The number of reports of stolen car parts started to increase in Los Angeles in August 2019. But the number began to skyrocket in October, when there were 256 reports of stolen car parts; and the number nearly doubled from that amount three months later, according to Crosstown. The months between November and February represent the four highest monthly totals for auto-part theft reports recorded in the city since 2010, when the Los Angeles Police Department began to make its data public. MyNewsLA.com 8 Arrested In Narcotics Ring Bust Allegedly Run By Perris Man In Los Angeles and Riverside Counties Authorities arrested eight defendants Thursday named in a federal grand jury indictment alleging their involvement in a drug trafficking organization operating in Los Angeles and Riverside counties that distributed large quantities of methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and other narcotics across the United States. Those eight and nine others who are still being sought by authorities are charged in the 20-count indictment that outlines an 18-month investigation that led to multiple seizures of narcotics, firearms and $1.5 million in drug proceeds, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The indictment alleges that the drug ring was headed by Rigoberto Sanchez Martinez, 36, of Perris, who obtained wholesale quantities of narcotics, oversaw their storage, and coordinated distribution of the drugs to locations that included the states of Washington and New York. Martinez was one of the eight defendants arrested Thursday. NBC 4 Highlighted Social Media Post One Suspect Arrested In Woman’s Killing During Lancaster Robbery Attempt, 2 More Sought One man has been arrested and two others remain at large in the killing of a woman during an attempted robbery at a Lancaster apartment complex last week. On Wednesday, Jajuan Termell Welch-Arroyo surrendered to Los Angeles police in North Hollywood, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department reported Thursday. On the night of March 26, three men were involved in an attempted robbery at an apartment complex in the 4400 block of 15th Street West. When the suspects ran to their vehicle, 31-year-old resident Samantha Mena chased after them in an attempt to stop them. As they were trying to speed away, their vehicle ran over Mena, the sheriff’s department said. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she later died. Earlier this week, sheriff’s investigators released surveillance images of the three men wanted in the crime. It’s unclear if detectives know the identities of the other two suspects. CBS 2 Orange Shooting Gunman Knew His Victims And How To Trap Them The gunman knew his victims. He knew the office park — and how to trap them. He locked the gates to the complex with bike cables before he slipped inside a manufactured homes business called Unified Homes, backpack slung over his shoulder, gun in hand. That’s how police Thursday described the start of a shooting in Orange the night before that left four people, including a 9-year-old boy, dead. Officers arrived at the scene about 5:30 p.m., minutes after receiving reports of shooting. They encountered gunfire and shot through the locked gates, wounding the gunman, said Orange Police Lt. Jennifer Amat. They used bolt cutters to enter the complex. Officers found two victims in the courtyard — the boy and a woman who was alive and taken to a hospital, where she remains in stable yet critical condition. Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said it appeared that the boy died in the arms of a woman who “was trying to save him.” The boy is believed to be the son of one of the victims who worked at Unified Homes. Los Angeles Times Their Guns Should Be Taken Away, But California Is Falling Behind On Tracking Them Down The list of California gun owners banned from possessing their weapons grew last year to a record size, as the backlog of cases in a state program to seize the firearms surged by 17% during the coronavirus pandemic. The state Justice Department reported Thursday that it was actively trying to remove guns from 9,083 people at the beginning of 2021, an increase of 1,336 over the prior year — though fewer than in 2019, when Gov. Gavin Newsom significantly increased funding for the unique state confiscation program to help clear an enduring backlog. Field teams of special agents seize weapons from gun owners who are convicted of certain crimes or become subject to a mental health hold or domestic violence restraining order. The department said it was forced to dramatically scale back enforcement last year because of the pandemic, and removed one-third fewer names from the confiscation list than in 2019. People are removed from the list when special agents seize their weapons or determine they’ve already given them up. Because of the pandemic, “sustaining prior levels of investigations posed unacceptable infection risks,” the Justice Department wrote in its annual report about the program. San Francisco Chronicle Gun Background Checks Reaches Record Numbers In March 2021, FBI Reports Gun background checks have surged nationwide in March of 2021, according to data from the FBI. According to new numbers released by the FBI on Thursday, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) initiated more than 4.6 million firearm background checks last month alone. The previous record was set in March of 2020 with NICS conducted more than 4.3 million firearm background checks, which also happened to be the time when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. The record-breaking figures come just weeks after the U.S. House made a new push to expand background checks for gun sales. On March 11, the House passed two bills to require background checks on all firearms sales and transfers and to allow an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases. The FBI also released the top-10 highest days that NICS initiated background checks since 1998. In that data, six of those top-10 dates happened to be during March 2021. St. Patrick's Day 2021 saw the highest number of gun background checks with 236,295. FOX 11 Public Safety News 30% Of Californians Have Received COVID-19 Vaccine Dose. ‘It Transforms Everything’ More than 30% of Californians are now at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 — a hopeful milestone that comes as the state dramatically expands who is eligible to receive the shots. While still far short of the threshold needed to achieve the kind of herd immunity that can finally put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, officials say getting even to this level of community coverage provides a desperately needed layer of defense as the state seeks to dodge the COVID-19 spikes striking other areas of the country. “It happens in a split second, it doesn’t hurt, and yet it transforms everything,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said during a news conference Thursday. “It’s like the cloak of protection around you — the melting away of a year of suffering and trauma and pain begins to finally go away.” To date, providers throughout California have administered more than 18 million vaccine doses. On Thursday, one of those went into the arm of Gov. Gavin Newsom — who, along with millions of other Californians, became eligible after the state officially opened the vaccination queue to residents 50 and older. Los Angeles Times California Lifts 120-Mile Travel Advisory But Still Discourages Out-of-State Travel California on Thursday lifted the statewide advisory that asked leisure travelers to stay within 120 miles of home to curb the spread of COVID-19, according to a news release. However, the California Department of Public Health still discourages travelers from leaving the state or the country “until we can achieve higher levels of vaccination in California and beyond.” New recommendations for nonessential, or leisure, travel include taking a COVID-19 test before and after you travel, even if you have been vaccinated, and self-quarantining for seven days, even if your test is negative. “Delay travel and stay home to protect yourself and others from COVID-19, even if you are vaccinated,” Centers for Disease Control guidelines say. Testing should take place one to three days before you leave, and three to five days after you return. If you don’t get tested, you should stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days when you return. Of course, travelers should wear masks, wash their hands frequently and continue to social distance from others. Essential workers who come in and out of the state don’t need to quarantine. KTLA 5 ‌ ‌ ‌ Visit our website LA Police Protective League | 1308 West Eighth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Customer Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!