Dear Friend —

Over the weekend we witnessed a horrific shooting in Sacramento that killed 6 people and injured at least a dozen more. Our love and support go out to each of the victims and their families. This terrible incident highlights a trend in violence we are seeing across the country. From Long Beach to Sacramento to New York, gun violence is devastating communities nationwide and we must collectively do more to take action and keep communities safe.

Since the pandemic started, there has been a clear increase in gun violence from coast to coast. Over the summer, gun sales spiked 64% across America and guns seized by our local police department increased by as much as 51% over the course of the pandemic.

This is a national epidemic, and it's affecting us in California and here in Long Beach. While we have less gun violence than we have had in decades past, more must absolutely be done.

Thankfully our police department has been working with neighborhoods and community groups to improve safety in our city. The Department’s patrol divisions have been proactively deployed across the city and we have launched numerous violence prevention programs with trusted community partners.

The Department also launched the Neighborhood Walks program which encourages officers to walk in Long Beach neighborhoods, interact with residents and businesses, and build strong relationships. This program began in the Washington Neighborhood of our West Division and rotated to the North and East Divisions. We're also continuing to get illegal and ghost guns out of our community to prevent violence in the first place. At the start of the year, gun arrests were up 36%, while arrests overall were down 18.9%.

Thankfully we're already beginning to see an overall flattening of crime as our economy recovers and more people are out engaging with one another. We're continuing these efforts by investing in violence prevention and workforce programs for youth as well as education and recreation opportunities for children and young adults. We understand how important access to education, mental health, and public services are to neighborhood safety, and we're continuing to emphasize these important priorities to make our city safer.

We spent much of the last two years addressing COVID-19 and public health, and we are now on our way to a robust economic recovery. With this progress also needs to come a smart, full safety recovery.

Thank you,

Mayor Robert Garcia