LA crime is down – but it’s still a hot topic in the mayoral race

Homicides in Los Angeles have dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s. Neighborhoods once riddled with gang violence now sometimes go weeks, even months, without a shooting. And the subsequent house robberies and street takeovers that have captured the public’s attention in recent years have largely subsided.

By most measures, the city is safer than it has been in generations — but voters following LA’s hotly contested mayoral race would think otherwise.

Challengers to Mayor Karen Bass have tapped into the issue of homelessness and drug use in the community to point out that she has failed to improve public safety, while also criticizing the way the Police Department has operated and been funded during her administration.

Mike Bonin, a former LA City Council member, said the fact that Spencer Pratt – a former TV star who attacked Bass on the right – has gained so much power in the race is evidence of how Bass and other candidates on the left have failed to change “the prevailing narrative that the city is unsafe.”

Pratt has been particularly active on social media, where he has shared artificial intelligence videos created by fans portraying him as various heroes who will rescue the city, which, under the rule of the Democratic Alliance, has turned into a dystopian hellscape.

In a March 26 post on Substack, Pratt railed against the thousands of drug-related calls emergency officials respond to each month. He said that if elected mayor, he would order the police and fire chiefs and the county health director to “treat the whole field like a graveyard.”

“No new laws are needed,” he wrote. “There is no such thing as endless work force.”

Flanking Bass on the left is Nithya Raman, a progressive City Council member who was once the mayor’s political friend.

Raman argued that Bass has thrown too much money at the LAPD, with raises at the expense of other basic services like park maintenance and paving. Raman said the LAPD’s pay raise “costed” the city, depriving other agencies of much-needed funding. In campaign ads, Raman positioned himself as a logical alternative to Bass. Raman said he will work to reduce road deaths and prioritize safety in the city’s buses and trains.

During his first run for office in 2020, Raman called for the police to be deregulated, saying the Los Angeles Police Department should be “a very small special forces force.” However, since then, he has voted for other budgets that have increased spending on law enforcement.

Responding to questions from The Times, Raman said he would work to find ways to improve public safety.

“I will propose a budget that expands unarmed response, work with the LAPD to improve 911 response to quickly respond to calls for help that do not require armed police, and I will appoint leadership to the Police Commission that will work fully with the City Council to implement reforms,” ​​he said.

Representatives for Pratt and Bass did not respond to requests for interviews with the candidates.

Bonin said Bass — who supported various police reform measures during Congress — shocked some of his supporters by saying he “worked hard on the police.”

When he ran for mayor in 2022, Bass vowed to retool the hiring and hiring process to restore the LAPD’s workforce to 9,500 officers. That hasn’t happened yet. The number of sworn officers recently dropped to less than 8,600, despite Bass striking a deal with the police union to offer higher starting salaries and new bonuses.

Mayor Karen Bass participates in a candidate forum on May 5, 2026, in Sherman Oaks.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

On Thursday, the City Council approved a $15 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, including funds to hire 510 new officers — just enough to cover turnover and maintain the current workforce.

Raman said the LAPD should not continue to be understaffed because there are not enough officers to respond to 911 calls “in a timely manner.”

Samantha Stevens, a Los Angeles political consultant and former law enforcement officer, said people seem willing to support Pratt because he acknowledges that their safety has been compromised — even if he has offered few concrete details about how to deal with crime beyond ending homelessness.

Pratt’s critics say his plan hinges on funneling homeless people into a shelter system that doesn’t have the capacity to handle them all. Others noted that the aggressive tactics he proposed could face legal challenges.

LA City Council member Nithya Raman, who is running for mayor, makes a campaign stop at the site of a home that burned in the Palisades fire.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

“He is a good example of someone who has a lot of ideas but doesn’t know how the city is run,” said Stevens.

Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University, said Pratt seems to have tapped into a deep well of discontent among Angelenos who believe crime and homelessness are out of control. The challenge for Bass, he added, is that although statistics show that crime is down, many people associate the sight of encampments spilling onto the streets as “deterioration” that shows the city is becoming less safe.

“You want to go back to the Daryl Gates days, you’ve got Pratt,” he said, referring to the former LAPD chief whose police sweep in the late 1980s made thousands of arrests while dividing large parts of South LA.

“If you’re looking for the same thing over the last 20 years, you’ve got Bass,” added Guerra. “And if you want something new, then you have Raman, but he has to explain what he really wants to do.”

While Pratt and Raman appear to be Bass’s strongest opponents, several long-time shooters have also made public safety a priority in their campaigns. Others followed Bass in his support of LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell. Hired by Bass in 2024, McDonnell has touted a dramatic drop in crime under his leadership, but has also faced criticism for a spike in police shootings and brutal crowd control tactics during protests against the Trump administration’s policies.

Police Chief Jim McDonnell attends a news conference at LAPD headquarters on May 21, 2026.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Rae Huang, a minister and housing rights advocate, said if elected mayor she would immediately replace McDonnell with someone “with the ability to rethink what public safety really looks like.”

“I’m the only one who has the courage to say that out loud,” Huang told The Times during a recent campaign stop at a bookstore in the West Adams neighborhood.

In social media posts and interviews, Huang has often called the LAPD “one of the biggest gangs in the world,” and said he would work to remove money from the police budget to expand programs that have shown promise in sending unarmed professionals to respond to emergencies involving people experiencing mental health issues.

The city already has two such programs, but under Bass it remains underfunded, Huang said. Last week, the City Council signed off on extending one of the programs.

Huang said he would also invest more money in addressing the city’s lack of affordable housing, which he said is the cause of crime and homelessness.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into attack ads against Huang and Raman.

Adam Miller, a tech entrepreneur, tried to be balanced in his mayoral campaign, advocating for reform while acknowledging that many people still feel unsafe despite a historic drop in violent crime.

He criticized a recent vote by the LA City Council to limit so-called traffic stops, where officers pull people over for minor traffic violations to investigate more serious crimes. The stops have been accused of allowing racism.

Miller said “forcing the Police Department is the opposite of what we should be doing.” He called for “utilizing” AI and improving the department’s antiquated computer systems, which he said would allow the LAPD to catch up with other agencies that have embraced the new technology.

Miller told The Times that he recently rode with the Rampart police, which he said opened his eyes.

“At a high level I think Angelenos don’t feel safe anymore,” he said. “They don’t feel safe in the places they live, but recently they don’t even feel safe in their homes.”

Statistically speaking, the city may be safer than it has been in decades, he said — but that means nothing to voters.

“I don’t think it’s just an idea,” he said. “I think it’s true that crime is spreading.”