El Sereno Area : Police Pedal Patrol Hits the Streets

In an effort to halt an increase in street crime and robberies in El Sereno, Los Angeles police officers have taken to the streets--on bicycles.

Two 15-speed bikes, presented Wednesday afternoon by local merchants to the Police Department’s Hollenbeck Division foot-beat unit, will be used to patrol the Eastside community’s commercial areas along Huntington Drive and Eastern Avenue.

El Sereno Chamber of Commerce officials, who lament the general lack of cooperation among local merchants, also hope that the gesture will encourage greater unity.

Several merchants said El Sereno’s business community lacks cohesion. Few, if any, merchants attend chamber meetings or work together on community improvement projects, they said.

Children Pleased

Although members of the business community were noticeably absent during Wednesday’s presentation at the Capitol Market parking lot on Huntington Drive, a small crowd of schoolchildren who happened by oohed and aahed at the newest additions to the Police Department’s mobile equipment.

“I want to have one of those,” a wide-eyed Paul Zagala, 11, said while eyeing the shiny silver-colored bikes. “They’re really nice.”

Although the area’s crime rate is generally no higher than in most parts of the city, police said there has been a marked increase in the number of robberies, purse snatching and muggings along the wide, palm-lined boulevards that serve as the community’s main shopping streets.

About 17 robberies have been reported in the last three months, said Sgt. Mark Conta, who heads the 10-officer foot-beat unit serving the Hollenbeck area. The officers, who also patrol commercial strips in neighboring Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights, as well as three East Los Angeles public housing projects, will now add El Sereno to their beat.

“We hope that our added visibility will help curtail the robberies,” Conta said.

Bicycle patrols are not new to Southern California police departments. They have been used for some time, particularly during the summer months, in coastal communities where bikes and other modes of transportation, such as four-wheel-drive vehicles, provide easier access to beach areas.

Conta said bicycles were chosen for El Sereno because the business district is too spread out to cover on foot. If their use proves effective over a four-month trial period, the foot-beat unit will lobby to have two more officers permanently assigned to it to maintain the program.

Kenneth Wong, 67, president of the local Chamber of Commerce and owner of the Capitol Market since 1961, donated one of the bikes in the hope that the “dope peddling and burglaries” will stop, he said.

About two years ago, Wong said, burglars broke into his market and stole about $60,000 from the safe, including jewelry owned by several family members.

“My windows get busted every other month and there is dope dealing in my parking lot,” he said, adding that other merchants also complain bitterly about their losses, “but don’t do anything about it.”

Rene Maldonado, chamber of commerce manager, said the bicycle patrol was planned as a surprise for area merchants, in the hope that it will encourage them to work together on other community projects.

“If this doesn’t bring them out, nothing will,” he said.