L. B. Police Task Force Aims to Keep Transients, Thieves on the Move--Away From Downtown

Walking slowly through a dark corridor in a dingy-looking hotel in downtown Long Beach, police Officer Raul Granby gently pushed in a door and asked: “Are you people supposed to be here?”

“Yes, sir,” a man quickly responded.

Outside the dilapidated hotel on Third Street, Officer Steve Strichart stopped a shabbily dressed man and ran a warrants check on him.

Nearby, two plainclothes officers walked past a disheveled-looking woman. Officer Lance Livingston, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, conspicuously counted $1 bills in front of her.

“She asked for 50 cents and then got greedy and asked for a buck and a quarter,” Livingston said.

They arrested her for panhandling.

Criminals, Loiterers

Livingston, his partner, Hernando Torres, and three uniformed officers were out to clean up the downtown. They walked, drove and biked through streets, hotels, bars, stores, parks, Long Beach Plaza and the Promenade, stopping known criminals and suspicious-looking loiterers.

They belong to a new task force whose goal, said Sgt. Richard Wood, is “to make this a desirable place.”

That requires getting rid of bums, drunks, panhandlers, and thieves by making it uncomfortable for them to hang out downtown, Wood said.

Retailers and people who shop or eat downtown were enthusiastic about the task force, which began work Monday. But the Long Beach chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, which recently complained of police misconduct toward blacks, charged that the program opens the door to harassment.

“People are coming to us with complaints. Many times they are stopped for no reason whatsoever,” said Joseph Kennerson, NAACP chapter president. “I don’t think someone should be pulled over unless the police have a reason.”

Sgt. Wood said the police do have reasons.

Bathing in Fountain

Sometimes they are obvious. On Tuesday, for example, Livingston and Torres found a fully dressed woman bathing in the Amphitheater fountain.

A bar of soap in hand, the woman stepped out of the fountain after the two undercover officers showed their badges and asked her what she was doing.

“Cleaning up and having a good time,” she said. “I thought that’s what the park was for.”

But the municipal code prohibits bathing or swimming in public fountains, the woman was told. Surprised, she tucked her soap and baby powder back into her purse.

“Can I see your ID again?” she asked. “How come you’re dressed like that?”

Torres again showed her his badge. Livingston, carrying a soft-drink bottle in a paper bag, asked: “Don’t we look like cops to you?”

“You act like it,” she said.

Taken to Jail

Because the woman had no identification, Torres and Livingston could not issue a citation, so they handcuffed her and took her to Long Beach Jail.

In other cases, the reasons may not be obvious. Officers say they rely on their training and instincts to determine if there is reasonable cause to stop someone.

Patrolling Long Beach Plaza on Wednesday, for example, officers found a young couple sitting on a bench. Both had tattoos on their arms. The man wore torn jeans and carried a black leather jacket with a skull-and-crossbones emblem.

Police asked Michelle Lester, 18, and Sean Delaney, 21, what they were doing. They said they had come to shop and eat lunch.

Searching Delaney’s jacket, Granby found a brass knuckle. Delaney said it was used as a key chain. Strichart told him: “I’ve been a cop too long to have someone tell me this is a key chain.”

Jewelry Found

In a pocket, police found two small plastic bags. One held a locket and the other a flat piece of gold.

“You are in possession of some valuable gold,” Wood said. He asked where Delaney had gotten it. Delaney said a friend had given it to him; it was from Vietnam, and he was going to have the items appraised at a jewelry shop.

The officers said it was “highly suspicious” for the couple to have expensive jewelry. They said they would take the locket and gold to the police station for a burglary check. If, after 72 hours, the jewelry had not been determined to be stolen property, the couple could have it back.

“OK, that’s no problem,” Delaney told police. “I can see your point.”

Arrest Warrant

Then the officers got word by walkie-talkie that an arrest warrant was out on Delaney. He owed $171 on a traffic violation.

“I don’t believe this,” Delaney said, shaking his head as the officers handcuffed him and took him to jail.

Outside the mall, Lester, his girlfriend, said the police weren’t “very fair.”

“A lot of cops do stop us because we’re punk. We look suspicious,” she said. “We just came to eat lunch.”

Later, Wood said police had stopped the couple because “we wanted to question (them) for possibly loitering. They were sitting there, kind of shabbily dressed. Not that people don’t have the right to sit there shabbily dressed. But (they were people) we wanted to talk to, with the emphasis of cleaning up the mall and ridding it of people who have no business being there.”

Strichart said he decides to stop “anyone you see who you wouldn’t want your wife, mother or daughter coming in contact with.”

Dozens Arrested

Last week the officers arrested dozens of people--including several they recognized as former jail trustees--for violations including drinking in public and panhandling. They also transferred people who appeared mentally unstable to hospitals for 24- to 72-hour observations. For everyone stopped, officers filled out a field interrogation card. Granby said he averaged about 30 cards a day between Monday and Wednesday.

One aim of the downtown task force, and its six-member counterpart at night, is to give people a sense of security, Torres said.

“It’s not that we’re trying to pick on anyone,” he said. “But it’s just a matter of letting them know (criminal behavior) won’t be tolerated.

“By no means is it any type of harassment,” Torres said.

For business owners such as Carmen Duarte, who owns a record store in the downtown mall, the increased patrol was good news.

“That will be great. There is so much going on,” Duarte said. “People are scared to come down here. My insurance guy won’t even come here. I’m sure glad you guys are around.”

‘Bottom Line’

Strichart said the task force was formed partly to help business at the mall. “The bottom line is bucks,” he said, citing a recent recommendation by a city advisory group that officials should work to eliminate the perception that downtown Long Beach is crime-ridden.

That feeling was echoed by other downtown retailers.

“We’re glad to see these guys,” said Ben Deer, manager of Tesla Stationery. “My customers are scared to park here to walk to the store.”

While Deer was praising them, three of the officers stopped three young men on bicycles and asked the standard questions: “Where are you heading? What are you doing here?”

“Where did you get your bike?” Strichart asked one of them.

“A friend gave it to me,” the man said.

“Do me a favor,” Strichart said. “Turn it around.” He searched the bicycle for a serial number but it was painted over.

Thorough Inspection

Earlier, Wood had used a small flashlight to check the man’s arms for needle punctures. He inspected the brim of the man’s purple wool cap. Another officer searched one of the other men’s jacket.

Police filled out information cards on all three men, including one they recognized as a repeat offender. They cited one man for riding his bicycle on a sidewalk but let the other two go. The men left grumbling under their breath.

Many of the people stopped by the officers were known criminals. Granby, who has walked the downtown beat for five years, knew many, including Reggie Tate, by name.

“Hello, Reggie. Staying out of trouble?” Granby asked. They chatted for a while.

Later, Tate, 28, complained that Granby “harasses me all the time. I guess because I’m black and wear a beeper, he thinks I’m a big dope dealer.” Tate said his only brush with the law had occurred outside of Long Beach and had involved traffic violations.

Told of this, Granby smiled. He reached into his pocket and pulled photos of criminals and printouts of their records. Tate’s picture was on top; his record included numerous arrests for petty theft and possession of narcotics with intent to sell.

Location, time of day, attire and circumstances help police decide who is suspicious, police Cmdr. Robert Luman said.

Suspicious Signs

A young woman dressed in tight clothes standing late at night at a corner frequented by prostitutes could lead police to suspect that she is a prostitute, Luman said. “Take that same gal and put her in Belmont Shore, and you think she’s a teen-ager.”

One of the task force’s main objectives is responding to repeated complaints about panhandlers, officers said.

“It used to be ‘Could you spare a quarter?’ Now, it’s ‘Hey, give me some money.’ They do intimidate a lot of people,” said Torres, who added that there is a “fine line” between panhandling and robbery.

Torres and Livingston try to catch people in the act of asking for money. When they spot someone who might be a panhandler, Livingston pulls out a few $1 bills. “It’s not entrapment. We’re setting it up so they hit us up instead of citizens,” he said.

Some Bypassed

The police don’t stop everyone. They bypassed an 80-year-old man who regularly sits in the mall--Wood called him “a little unsightly, but he’s not bothering anyone”--and “Circles,” a homeless man who circles every lamppost he encounters. Granby offered him a ride to a rescue mission.

But they do stop many.

“I talked to a transient the day before yesterday and told him we didn’t want him hanging around. I saw him again yesterday,” Wood said. “I’m not going to arrest him. I’ll just remind him again and make it uncomfortable for him.”