L.A. Metro Releases Crime Stats Following Red Line Murder

In response to a fatal stabbing that occurred on a Metro Red Line train in August, the transit authority for the first time ever has released detailed crime statistics for its trains and buses.

A post published today on The Source blog shows that, despite the first murder in the system's 17-year-history, "the number of the most serious crimes has gone down and the number of arrests and citations has gone up."

• Click here to see The Source's full post

The Gold Line, which runs from Pasadena to East Los Angeles, though the Northeast L.A. neighborhoods of Highland Park and Mount Washington, appears to be one of Metro's safest lines.

From January through August 2011, 4.4 part one crimes (murder, rape, assault, robbery) per one million riders were reported on the Gold Line. That's significantly lower than the 21.1 and 11.0 per million reported on Green and Blue Lines, respectively.

Those numbers are slightly higher than the Red and Orange Lines, which reported 3.7 and 4.4 million part one crimes per million riders, respectively. 

According to Metro's statistics, a total of three part one crimes were reported on the Gold Line in August, among them was a non-fatal stabbing incident that left a Monrovia man hospitalized.

The Source's blog post indicates that many of the crimes that occur in the Metro system, which is policed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, are thefts of valuables like cell phones and jewelry.

Riders are urged not to wear, or at least not to display, valuable jewelry on the Metro system, and to be careful while talking on cellphones when near or aboard trains.