LA Police Department public database on crime omits nearly 40 percent of crime

By Ben Welsh and Doug Smith in today's LA Times:

The Los Angeles Police Department's online crime map intended for public use has failed to include nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in the city, a Times analysis has found.

The omissions, which date back at least six months, include thousands of crimes known to LAPD officials and are included in their official crime statistics.

Among the 19,000 incidents between Jan. 1 and June 13 that do not appear at lapdcrimemaps.org:

* 26 homicides

* 137 rapes

* 10,766 personal, vehicle or other nonviolent thefts

In one of those rapes, a man hid in the back of a woman's car, forced her to drive to an abandoned North Hollywood apartment and assaulted her. It was the kind of incident that residents of the neighborhood around Sherman Way and Kester Avenue would have wanted to know about. . . .