Police planning to keep door open for residents
PICO NEIGHBORHOOD — Police officials are trying a new approach in attempts to better connect with residents, particularly in this eastside neighborhood, where gunshots seem to ring throughout the streets on a regular basis.
High-ranking Santa Monica Police offcials met with members of the Pico Neighborhood Association this past Thursday to explain a neighborhood community policing plan that is designed to unite the two sides and give them a better understanding of the challenges they face.
Even though the SMPD has been using the community policing model in the neighborhood for more than a decade, it’s taking it to another dimension by putting lieutenants directly into the neighborhoods.
PNA board members reluctantly listened to the new plan and said what’s being done currently is not enough because people in the neighborhood don’t trust police. They want a coalition comprised of community members, police officers, city officials and clergy formed that will address the violence, as well as misperceptions that some residents have of police.
“In the past few years, there have been problems. Families feel they have been harassed and unfairly treated. We want to sit down at the same table, discussing the issues,” said PNA member Irma Carranza. “We feel it’s essential to work with the police department in a positive way.”
That’s exactly what the SMPD plans to do, said Chief Deputy Phil Sanchez. There are three lieutenants assigned to the Pico neighborhood who serve as emissaries for SMPD Chief James T. Butts Jr. Taking the community policing model a step further, officers will meet with community members to discuss the issues, work toward solutions and keep communication open and constant.
“Any police department relies on trust, and relationships are built on trust,” Sanchez said. “They have to be in order to be effective.”
Before the neighborhood community policing model, a beat officer and community relations officer regularly met with residents. But those officers didn’t have the resources and the ability to create change to assist their concerns immediately because decision-making had to go through the SMPD chain of command. With the new program, lieutenants will be working directly with the citizens and are able to make decisions without having to engage in the bureaucratic process.
“We will hear the concerns directly from community members,” said SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega. “We are part of management and have the ability to make decisions to bring about change.”
Maria Loya, a PNA board member, and others said they think the SMPD’s tactic of identifying parolees and those on probation through its close relationship with the Department of Corrections is bordering on harassment.
“It creates a division in the community,” she said. “Sweeps and those tactics aren’t part of a community policing model... they need to rethink their tactics and their approach.”
She pointed to earlier this summer when shots were fired in five separate incidents within a month in the Pico neighborhood. Based on its own investigation and information provided by parole and probation officers, SMPD conducted several searches within the neighborhood that resulted in the arrests of six people for parole and probation violations. They were sent back into the prison system and in some of the searches weapons were recovered.
It’s a tactic that the SMPD believes is effective and, despite criticism from some in the community who say it’s unjust or unfair, police defend their policies.
PNA board member Gina deBaca said the result is that families are targeted by gang members when the parolees are scooped up by police and their arrests are publicized in the media.
“That’s why a coalition is important, to see what the community is going through,” she said.
Fabrega, who attended Thursday’s meeting, said he is anxious to get the discussions underway. More than anything, he plans to listen to the group’s concerns and then work toward addressing them.
“We look forward to working with all the neighborhoods in the southeast section of Santa Monica,” said Fabrega, who is assigned to the southeast region of the city, which extends east of 11th Street and south of Olympic Boulevard to the southern city limit. SMPD Lts. P.J. Guido and Ray Cooper also are assigned to the area.
Fabrega said both sides need to look at how to make the neighborhood more safe.
“They need to understand that trust is a two-way street,” he said. “We are here to work with the community. We all need to sit down and be accountable for our behavior and actions.”
The neighborhood community policing model was first used last year as a pilot program on Main Street. Police quickly learned that issues concerning residents and merchants changed from block to block — one segment on the north end had concerns about the homeless, others had concerns about traffic, lighting and noise.
“As you move through the community, the issues will change back and forth,” Fabrega said.
Police presence in the Pico neighborhood is higher per capita than anywhere else in the city. A substation there has four full-time officers and a sergeant, all specially trained in gang culture, as well as in prevention and enforcement.
In addition to the substation, regular patrols are done throughout the neighborhood by police. After violent crimes occur, those patrols are increased.
In the past five months, according to Sanchez, the SMPD has initiated 1,188 contacts with residents in the neighborhood and responded to 1,322 calls for service — 2,510 contacts total. There has been more than 3,000 hours of enforcement by officers assigned to the area, 2,278 hours of overtime and 61 hours of air patrol, via helicopter, in the neighborhood in the last five months.
PNA board member Wes Terry said despite beefed up enforcement and community policing, the violence — particularly at 17th Street and Delaware Avenue — continues. He said while the police and the community are responsive to the recent gunshots, city officials have remained silent.
“In the past two months, we’ve seen a lot of action and I see nothing from the (city council) saying they are going to do something,” he said. “We have this ongoing violence... it’s only a matter of time before a child is killed or an innocent bystander... it’s time to do something different.”
Loya said she left the meeting encouraged and optimistic about building a new relationship with the SMPD, but also added that the initial phase of it will be difficult because the trust has to be formed.
“I hope it’s more than just talking about it and using community policing as a public relations move, but actually implementing it,” she said. “The fact that they are talking about it is a good first step.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 15, 2003. Read the original PDF.