“It's nothing to brag about, but I've been in the jail five times, two years each time,” Bynum said.

He says the neighborhood is better, and so are the police.

“They used to beat you up, then take you to jail, but I think they're getting better as far as how they treat the people in the street,” Bynum said.

Intervention workers help calm the streets after confrontations between gang factions, and police have started community programs, such as reading to kids in school and coaching youth football teams, says Captain Tingirides.

“And a lot of it is building relationships before you have a problem, so that when you have a problem, you know who you can go and talk to. You have already some sort of connection with that person. And that's what's making the big difference,” Tingirides said.

One longtime critic of the LAPD, Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope, agrees that relations are getting better.

“I think we now see a genuine partnership that's authentic, and more importantly, crime has dropped because we now see community policing in our neighborhoods throughout south LA and the city. So I'm very optimistic that things will continue in the future to improve,” Ali said.

There was a national rise in assaults and property crimes last year, but the rate of murder and other serious crimes is dropping around the country, and the overall crime rate has been going down for decades. Police in Los Angeles say that with community help, they are keeping down crime by building one-on-one relationships in these neighborhoods.