The city and its population are fully aware that they’ve become an inviting target. “Whatever the police have needed, fortunately we’re a city that we can write a check and get it,” says Todd Johnson, president and CEO at the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. With more than 2,000 cameras already deployed throughout the city, Beverly Hills has also hired two private security firms to patrol neighborhoods alongside police. Or hit the streets in a luxo ride retrofitted with countermeasures like electrified door handles, run-flat tires and armor plating that can withstand military ordnance -say, the $650,000 Mercedes-Benz S680 Guard, which can repel assault rifle rounds and the detonation of hand grenades, or the $1 million tanklike SUV from Latvia’s Dartz Motorz Co. Instead of driving the Bentley, maybe just take the SUV. “We’re telling clients, ‘Hey, don’t go out with flashy jewelry. “Beverly Hills is definitely a target,” says security expert David Perez, CEO of Omega International Group and a former Marine who previously worked security in the Clinton White House and at the Pentagon. 1 home- invasion robbery and shooting death of philanthropist Jacqueline Avant, 81, in her Trousdale Estates home, only accelerated the arms race among the affluent. Last March, a $500,000 Richard Mille watch was stolen at gunpoint from a diner at the Il Pastaio restaurant. In Beverly Hills, the craving for additional security dates to the riot that followed an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020, with unprecedented looting along Rodeo Drive that left broken boutique windows beneath beloved luxury brands: Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Michael Kors, MCM, Ermenegildo Zegna. Some firms had their on-site security guards sent home for health and social distancing reasons. The security business is experiencing a rebound after a couple of diminished years because of the pandemic. “If you want the Gucci package, it’s going to cost money.” ![]() One client asked about creating the “Tony Stark- level” security of a half-dozen automated drones to hover over his house, says Stuart, whose gun store is part of his larger security company, Force Protective Agency. That fear has the wealthiest of local gentry contemplating every more elaborate security measures: armored luxury cars, safe rooms and bullet- proof glass in their homes. “Everyone has a general sense of constant fear, which is very sad. “This morning I sold six shotguns in about an hour to people that say, ‘I want a home defense shotgun,’” says Stuart, whose store is discreetly located in a Beverly Hills office building, with no sign on the doors, down the hall from a diamond dealer. Most are arming themselves for the first time. The apparent siege has brought in a daily stream of anxious business owners and prominent actors, real estate moguls and film execs, says owner Russell Stuart. Since opening in July 2020, the store has seen upscale residents from Santa Monica to the Hollywood Hills increasingly in a panic following several high-profile smash-and-grab and violent home invasion robberies. The city’s only gun store, Beverly Hills Guns, is a “concierge service” by appointment only, for a largely affluent clientele. Approximately 14,000 assaults went unreported as 'minor offenses' rather than violent crimes.In Beverly Hills, even the purchase of a firearm comes with certain… expectations. In 2015, it emerged that the Los Angeles Police Department had been under-reporting crime for eight years, making the crime rate in the city appear much lower than it really is. However, the Los Angeles Police Department has reported that violent, gang-related crimes has increased by 63% from 2014-2015. crime rates have fallen dramatically since the 1980s. In 2012, the LA Police Department reported that crime had declined in the city for the 10th consecutive year.Īfter a period of steady declines in gang-related crime during the 2000s, the San Fernando Valley experienced one of the lowest periods of violent crimes from 2012-2014. LA was portrayed as a dangerous and no-go region in rap music, TV shows and movies. Previously unknown gangs were growing and new ones were emerging. ![]() Between February and July 1984 cocaine abuse and related violence had exploded to unprecedented levels in the city and crack was widely available. Crime in Los Angeles reached its peak between the 1970s and 1990s.Ĭrack cocaine first began to be used on a massive scale in the state in 1984.
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