April 20, 2017 

City News Service 

Shootings by Los Angeles Police Department officers dropped by 17 percent in 2016, according to an annual report released Tuesday.

 

The Use of Force Year-End Review, a comprehensive report that is more than 400 pages long, was first published a year ago, and the department's statistics show use of force incidents were down in a number key areas in 2016.

 

The drop in shootings comes amid an increased focus on the issue, both in Los Angeles and nationally, and the report was released on the same day the Board of Police Commissioners approved new policies requiring officers to use more de-escalation techniques before resorting to force.

 

LAPD officers were involved in 40 shootings in 2016, eight less than in 2015. There were 30 shootings in 2014, 46 in 2013 and 37 in 2012. Nineteen suspects died from being shot in 2016, compared to 21 in 2015.

 

In 2016, 23 of the suspects shot at were Hispanic, which represented 56 percent of the total and a 6 percentage point increase from 2015. Thirteen black suspects were shot at in 2016, or 32 percent of the total, which was a 7 percentage point increase.

 

One suspect shot was white, which accounted for 2 percent of the total and a decrease of 15 percent compared to 2015.

 

Officers had more than 1.5 million contacts with members of the public in 2016, with 7 percent of the encounters resulting in arrests, according to the report. 

Category: Health