L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced there were only 297 murders in the City in 2010. (Eric Leonard/KFI NEWS)
While the City of Los Angeles ended 2010 with the fewest murders on record in decades, officials admitted Tuesday the percentage of solved cases had also shrunk, perhaps as a result of overtime caps that have sharply restricted the availability of detectives.
"We're going to have well over 70% clearance rate," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said, referring to the number of homicide cases considered solved.
"Still a great clearance rate, not as good as the clearance rate the year before which was 83%," Beck said at a City Hall news conference.
Budget cuts forced the LAPD to stop paying almost all officers cash overtime in 2010, and the City now compensates officers with paid time-off.
But the LAPD has also imposed a 250 hour cap on earned overtime compensation, after which officers are generally required to use the time off.
Nowhere has the restriction been more deeply felt than in the detective bureau where on-call homicide investigators can quickly hit the overtime ceiling and be sent home -- even in the midst of a fast-breaking murder case.
Chief Beck said the snowballing effect of the time-off compensation could force him to reassign officers in the coming months to make sure the City's most serious crimes were being thoroughly investigated.
"If I have to shift more investigative resources to homicide, to ensure that my clearance rate is adequate, then I will," Beck said.
Detectives around the City who've spoken to KFI NEWS on the condition of anonymity say the situation has gone critical, with key investigative positions going unfilled and inexperienced uniformed officers assigned to initially investigate shootings, rapes, and murders.
Just last week the LAPD could not afford to send a single detective to the scene of a five-victim shooting in North Hollywood, and officials confirmed a police captain had been formally reprimanded for ignoring the overtime cap so detectives he supervised in South L.A. could solve a murder.
