Cop Shop: Is it the heat or the humidity?

Several years ago when heavy winter rains pounded Southern California, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton bristled at a Los Angeles Times reporter's suggestion that weather had played any role in the large reductions in crime rates across the city. It was cops, not the weather, the chief insisted.

But on Monday, KFI's John and Ken wasted no time calling Bratton and the department out when one of his top commanders suggested that the heat --and high gas prices -- might have been variables at play in causing the jump in slayings.

"Now it's the weather," one of the hosts said in response to Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger's suggestion that warm weather brought more people outdoors.

In fairness to the LAPD, however, crime tends to rise in the spring and summer as higher temperatures send more people out of their homes.

--Andrew Blankstein

(Andrew Blankstein covers law enforcement for The Times).