Sepulveda Boulevard Neighbors Reassured : War on Prostitution Continues, Police Say

Los Angeles police and city officials told a gathering of Sepulveda Boulevard-area residents and business people Tuesday night that steps are being taken, including undercover investigations, to combat prostitution and related crime on the street.

Since Jan. 1, Capt. Mark Stevens said, a task force of a sergeant and 12 officers has made “in excess of 400 arrests” on Sepulveda Boulevard north of Roscoe Boulevard, reducing street crime in that area by 25%.

In addition, Sgt. Paul Haberman said undercover officers have made 57 arrests for prostitution and 10 for prostitution-related activity, such as lewd conduct, and assaults involving prostitutes, pimps or customers.

Stevens called for volunteers to help police locate prostitutes on the boulevard, or the locations in residential neighborhoods where they take customers for sex in automobiles. The prostitutes of Sepulveda Boulevard do not congregate in groups in a few well-known locations as they do in Hollywood, he said, but appear over a large area and disappear with customers within minutes of reaching the street.

City Councilman Hal Bernson told the group that he and Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district includes the boulevard, “have agreed we’re going to join hands on this one . . . and keep up the pressure until the problem is ended.” Bernson, whose district is just to the west of Wachs’, has said that prostitution-related crime crosses the boundary.

Bernson said the problem of identifying prostitutes and linking them with their past arrests--a major difficulty that affects the amount of bail required and the length of the sentence on conviction--will be solved by use of a computerized fingerprinting system he expects to go into operation soon. That will enable the legal system to keep convicted prostitutes jailed for longer periods, he said.

The meeting at Monroe High School was organized by Californians Against Prostitution, a neighborhood group formed to fight crime on Sepulveda Boulevard, and Lisa Dunn, executive director of the Panorama City/Sepulveda Chamber of Commerce.

Also attending were former Congresswoman Bobbi Fiedler, Board of Education candidate Barbara Romey, representatives of Wachs and state Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) and five members of the Guardian Angels, self-designated private street crime fighters.

The audience--10 women and two men--were outnumbered by the 18 participants in the meeting.

Fiedler told the group not to be discouraged by the small turnout, that it reminded her of the handful of people who appeared for the first meeting of BUSTOP, the San Fernando Valley anti-school busing organization that grew to thousands of members and launched her political career.

“From a small group, you can grow large because you have right on your side in this issue,” she said. “I live in the community and I see the problem all the time driving in the area.” Fiedler lives in Northridge.

Residents and business operators have complained about crime in the middle-class neighborhood for two years, blaming prostitutes and drug dealers.

Some residents expressed annoyance when a police crackdown on prostitution and drug dealing in the area, credited with more than 300 arrests in the first 10 months of 1986, was suspended in October after the police stopped receiving special funding.

Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who previously represented the area, had provided $82,000 from discretionary funds administered by his office to pay for the extra police attention. Wachs, who acquired the area when council districts were redrawn, said he could not afford to continue the funding.

Residents and merchants complained that prostitutes returned to the boulevard after the task force’s demise.

Wachs told a January meeting of angry homeowners that, at the request of Bernardi and himself, the council had authorized the Police Department to spend an extra $3.7 million on overtime, which he hoped would lead to a revival of the Sepulveda Boulevard task force against prostitution.

Police administrators said, however, that the money was needed more to combat drug trafficking than prostitution.

Nevertheless, the Devonshire Division, which polices the street north of Roscoe Boulevard, made 64 arrests in a sweep on Sepulveda Boulevard last weekend.

On Friday night, officers arrested 47 people suspected of drug trafficking and two alleged prostitutes. The next night, two women were arrested on suspicion of prostitution and five female undercover officers arrested 15 men on suspicion of soliciting acts of prostitution.