Foot Patrols Make Inroads in Pacoima, Get Mixed Reviews

At one stop, smiling children run up and trade baseball cards with the two police officers on patrol through one Pacoima’s largest housing projects. At another, less than half a mile away, a voice shouts at the pair: “Get out of here. We don’t want you here.”

This is the type of mixed reception the police on foot patrol in Pacoima’s highest-crime spots have come to expect.

“All the good people are happy to see us. All thugs want us out of here,” said one officer.

In its sixth month of operation, a “new” approach to police protection in Pacoima--old-fashioned foot patrols--is generally getting high marks from many community residents and Neighborhood Watch leaders, who for the first time feel that they are getting their fair share of police protection.

Manager’s Praise

“It’s about time somebody listened to the poor people,” said Rose Castaneda, assistant manager at Pierce Park Apartments. “This is the first time we have gotten police patrols on a regular basis. And this community is very appreciative.”

At the same time, however, the almost constant police presence at one of the target sites, the San Fernando Gardens housing project, has touched off a delicate community relations problem for police officials. They must convince some skeptical residents that the goal of the foot patrols is to help, not harass.

Since the patrols began in March, the officers have done everything from barbecuing hot dogs at a Boy Scout day camp at one site to recovering hand grenades from gang members at another. They have counseled a mother whose son was arrested and have received death threats from drug dealers.

Years of Failure

Years of conventional police tactics, including periodic 40-officer task forces and sting operations, had failed to bring about permanent control of the rampant drug trafficking and gang violence in parts of Pacoima, said Capt. Stan McGarry of the Foothill Division.

In response to longtime community demands for additional police, five two-officer foot patrols were assigned to five sites.

Besides Pierce Park Apartments and San Fernando Gardens, the sites are Parkview Apartments, “Mini” Pierce Park Apartments and the newly opened Pacoima Plaza shopping center.

Except for Pacoima Plaza, which police patrol largely as a security precaution, the sites are reputed centers for drug dealing, police said. They said the drug dealing in turn results in an increase in violent crime and burglaries.

Largely because of the foot patrols, narcotic arrests jumped 45% in the Foothill Division when figures from Jan. 1 to July 31, 1985, are contrasted with the 1984 figures, McGarry said.

From March 3, when the patrols began, to Aug. 16, foot patrols made 917 arrests, nearly half of which were narcotic arrests.

Drop in Nonviolent Crimes

Nonviolent crimes, such as robberies, auto thefts and thefts from vehicles, dropped 3% in the same five months.

“Arrests have gone up and crime is going down,” McGarry said. “We are making inroads.”

But so far, the patrols have not worked equally in all target areas. At Pierce Park Apartments, a privately owned, 430-unit housing project, officers are generally well-received. An active tenants group and Neighborhood Watch have met for more than a year with police, pushing for increased patrols.

Most active residents at Pierce Park know the officers and in many cases are eager to report crimes, Castaneda said.

In San Fernando Gardens, however, a 448-unit, city-owned housing project a few blocks from Pierce Park, police said they have run up against some hostility because of the lack of a strong tenant organization. They said that most residents have been unaware of the special foot patrols and that several have complained of an excessive police presence.

Confrontation at Project

The situation came to a head at San Fernando Gardens last weekend.

The foot patrols saw what they believed to be a drug transaction among several youths, McGarry said. As the two officers approached, bottles were thrown at them and the suspects threw the drugs aside and started to run, McGarry said. The officers called for backup, and in minutes 12 police cars pulled into the project.

By that time, a horde of shouting youths and residents had gathered, debris was being thrown and police began arresting several suspects. At one point during the fracas a young, pregnant woman was pushed to the ground by police because she appeared to be helping one of the handcuffed suspects, McGarry said.

Several residents and a group of teen-age residents who call themselves the “project boys” said they were shocked at the show of police force. They said they didn’t even know about the special foot patrols and felt that they were being harassed.

Police Talk With Residents

The incident prompted a meeting last week between police and about 30 residents.

It was tense at first. Six uniformed officers stood against the back wall. Residents sat in chairs while about 12 “project boys” sat in a circle in the front, smoking.

McGarry told the group that the project has recently become a haven for South Los Angeles gang members and drug dealers and that for that reason foot patrols are questioning loiterers and suspicious-looking people.

“The reason outside drug dealers are coming in here is because they feel they have friends here. They feel comfortable here,” McGarry said. “If you people want them out, you are going to have to forget the past and we are going to have to cooperate with each other.”

Jean Miller, a 19-year-resident of the project, agreed. “What you are talking about here has never existed” before, she told McGarry. “But it’s gotten bad enough here so that if you don’t come in, I’m going out. I don’t think we can see you as a threat anymore, but as a support mechanism.”

Feeling of Security

In other target sites, residents and managers praised the patrol effort and said there are visible differences in the area and a growing feeling of security.

“All the troublemakers used to hang out in front of the liquor store. But you are not seeing them there now,” said Harold Morrell, head of a crime watch group at Castle Isle mobile home park, which is sandwiched between two of the targeted housing developments.

“We are getting these police walking, driving by real slowly,” he said. “Things here at least seem to have quieted down.”

Mike Morgan, manager of Parkview Apartments, said he believes that drug traffic has been cut about 80% since the foot patrols targeted the privately owned, 80-unit complex.

“Last summer you could walk up to about 15 apartments in this complex and buy any drug you wanted,” Morgan said. “All I could do was call 911 when I saw the deals take place, but by the time the units would pull in, it would be over. Then as soon as police left, they would go right back to business.”

Fewer Dealers Observed

Although Morgan said drug sales still take place in several apartments, he believes that the constant patrols have pushed many dealers out.

McGarry predicts that in 18 months the target sites, especially the two housing projects, will be “completely turned around.”

“I want the officers to be recognized and known throughout the area,” he said. “It may sound corny, but I think it is reasonable to believe that this type of law enforcement can be done with a friendly approach and a sense of good humor.”

FOOT PATROL SITES

Los Angeles police targeted five residential and commercial sites in Pacoima and Lake View Terrace for a special foot patrol. A six-month review of the patrol shows that the area’s biggest crime problem is drug trafficking. Although the sites represent less than 4% of the Foothill Division’s area, they accounted for more than a third of the narcotic arrests.

A -- Pacoima Plaza A community shopping center.

B -- Pierce Park Apartments A 430-unit privately owned and federally subsidized housing project.

C -- “Mini” Pierce Park Apartments So-called by police because the small, privately owned apartment complex is across the street from Van Nuys’ Pierce Park Apartments.

D -- San Fernando Gardens A 448-unit public housing project owned and operated by the city Housing Authority.

E -- Parkview Apartments A privately owned 80-unit apartment complex.