Long Beach touts staffing gains and crime declines; expands crisis response and transparency

City leaders presented staffing and program changes they say are intended to improve public safety while emphasizing non-police crisis responses.

Mayor Rex Richardson highlighted recruitment gains, saying the city rebuilt police staffing with "200 new officers" and completed four full-time police academies since 2023. He noted the city opened a new police training academy able to train up to 100 officers at a time and welcomed class 100 with 98 recruits.

Richardson and police officials credited multiple strategies with recent crime reductions. The mayor cited data for 2025: a 26% reduction in homicides compared with the previous year and a 36% decline in shootings; he said crime declines extend to 52% since 2021 in certain measures and that burglaries fell, including a 21% decline in residential burglaries and a 50% decline in commercial burglaries.

At the same time, Richardson said the city has expanded community crisis response teams that deploy clinicians and mental health professionals to appropriate calls, "putting clinicians and mental health professionals on calls that need care, not enforcement." He framed that work as complementary to hiring more officers.

The city launched a public crime dashboard to provide residents with access to clear trend data and transparency, Richardson said. Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan described parallel efforts to strengthen emergency medical services, adding new paramedic rescue and assessment units in December and staffing ahead of retirements to reduce gaps in coverage.

Ending: Officials said they will continue to hire, train and invest in combined public-safety and crisis-response systems, and the city asked residents to hold leaders accountable by using the new public dashboard.