Community Complaints Bring More Patrols to Perry Park

Redondo Beach police stepped up patrols around Perry Park on Grant Avenue last week after neighbors told the City Council that the park had become a hangout for loud teen-agers, lewd vagrants and drug dealers.

Police officers began frequent checks of the park area between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. Thursday, said Sgt. Ken Kauffman. Lights on the basketball courts were put on timers and will automatically shut off at 10 p.m., he added.

The neighbors told city officials that they were afraid to leave for work because their homes were being watched by people who hang out in the park. Vagrants sleep in the bushes and urinate in public, one neighbor said.

One woman said her 12-year-old daughter was offered a chance to buy drugs and that vagrants made lewd remarks and gestures to the child. Police officers have not always responded to her complaints, she added.

Another neighbor, Kara Valentine, complained about lights and noise from basketball courts that were used late at night. Teen-agers play loud music in the park and often hang out on the roof of the snack bar, she said.

Councilman Archie Snow, who represents the park area, said he thought the troublemakers were not from the area. “I think it’s an infiltration of our park system by out-of-town people,” he said. “They all look like strangers to me.”

Police Chief Roger Moulton told the council that he had not known that the problems in the park were so extensive and promised the residents, the mayor and the City Council that he would work to resolve the problems immediately.