Skid Row crackdown questioned

Two years after the Los Angeles Police Department beefed up its Skid Row presence in a promised crackdown on crime, a UCLA study is questioning whether it had any major impact on reducing serious offenses in the area. Daily News.

In a follow-up study on the Safer Citiesy Initiative - the $6 million effort in which 50 extra officers were assigned to the 20-square-block area - UCLA law professor Gary Blasi examined the crime rate before theand after the program began and the most recent figures available.

"It looks like there was a reduction of one robbery per officer assigned to the area," Blasi said about the most recent figures available. "I suspect you could have done better by assigning these officers to a higher crime area."