00-799 City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books, Inc., et al.

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The 1977 study’s central component is a Los Angeles Police Department report indicating that, from 1965 to 1975, crime rates for, e.g., robbery and prostitution grew much faster in Hollywood, which had the city’s largest concentration of adult establishments, than in the city as a whole. The city may reasonably rely on the police department’s conclusions regarding crime patterns to overcome summary judgment. In finding to the contrary on the ground that the 1977 study focused on the effect on crime rates of a concentration of establishments – not a concentration of operations within a single establishment – the Ninth Circuit misunderstood the study’s implications. While the study reveals that areas with high concentrations of adult establishments are associated with high crime rates, such areas are also areas with high concentrations of adult operations, albeit each in separate establishments. It was therefore consistent with the 1977 study’s findings, and thus reasonable, for the city to infer that reducing the concentration of adult operations in a neighborhood, whether within separate establishments or in one large establishment, will reduce crime rates.

222 F.3d 719, reversed and remanded.

Local effect:

The Seventh Circuit has not previously considered the issue.

O’Connor, J.; Kennedy, J., concurring; Souter, J., dissenting.