Main article: Government of Los Angeles
See also: Government of Los Angeles County
Los Angeles is a charter city as opposed to a general law city. The current charter was adopted on June 8, 1999 and has been amended many times since then.[125] The elected government consists of the Los Angeles City Council and the Mayor of Los Angeles which operate under a mayor-council government, as well as the city attorney (not to be confused with the district attorney, a county office) and controller. The current mayor is Eric Garcetti. There are 15 city council districts.
The city has many departments and appointed officers, including the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), and the Los Angeles Public Library(LAPL).
The Charter of the City of Los Angeles ratified by voters in 1999 created a system of advisory neighborhood councils that would represent the diversity of stakeholders, defined as those who live, work or own property in the neighborhood. The neighborhood councils are relatively autonomous and spontaneous in that they identify their own boundaries, establish their own bylaws, and elect their own officers. There are currently about 90 neighborhood councils.
Residents of Los Angeles elect supervisors for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th supervisorial districts.
Federal and state representation[edit]
In the California State Assembly, Los Angeles is split between fourteen districts.[126] In the California State Senate, the city is split between eight districts.[127] In the United States House of Representatives, it is split between ten congressional districts.[128]
Crime[edit]
See also: Crime in Los Angeles and List of criminal gangs in Los Angeles
Los Angeles experienced a significant decline in crime in the 1990s and late 2000s and reached a 50-year low in 2009 with 314 homicides.[129][130] This is a rate of 7.85 per 100,000 population—a major decrease from 1980 when a homicide rate of 34.2 per 100,000 was reported.[131][132] This included 15 officer-involved shootings. One shooting led to the death of a SWAT team member, Randal Simmons, the first in LAPD's history.[133] Los Angeles in the year of 2013 totaled 251 murders, a decrease of 16 percent from the previous year. Police speculate that the drop resulted from a number of factors, including young people spending more time online.[134] Crime increased significantly in 2015 from the low in 2013 with the rate of aggravated assault up 76%, rape up 182.7% and murder up 9.2%.[135]
The Dragna crime family and the Cohen crime family dominated organized crime in the city during the Prohibition era[136] and reached its peak during the 1940s and 1950s with the battle of Sunset Strip as part of the American Mafia, but has gradually declined since then with the rise of various black and Hispanic gangs in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[136]
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the city is home to 45,000 gang members, organized into 450 gangs.[137] Among them are the Crips and Bloods, which are both African American street gangs that originated in the South Los Angeles region. Latino street gangs such as the Sureños, a Mexican American street gang, and Mara Salvatrucha, which has mainly members of Salvadoran descent, all originated in Los Angeles. This has led to the city being referred to as the "Gang Capital of America".[138]
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