People and Events

Kalispell, Mont., Police Detective Ron Young felt he needed some “hands-on experience” in dealing with homicides because “we only have maybe one a year up here.” So he came down to work with the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Division for two weeks.

“I had no idea what I was getting into,” he said.

The first night he went into South-Central Los Angeles, Young drew his weapon 13 times--more than in 17 years on the Kalispell force.

“It was shocking,” said Young, 42. “In Montana, you just don’t pull your gun unless you’re shot at. But we were investigating the murder of a hooker and, well, we were dealing with a different type of people. I was really impressed with how well the (Los Angeles) department works under all that pressure.”

One night, while visiting another murder site in South-Central Los Angeles with the LAPD’s homicide section, Young witnessed a series of drug transactions next door.

“What amazed me is that they kept doing it knowing there were police there,” Young said. When he snapped some photos of the activity, “the guy who lived there got angry with me because it was scaring away business.”

After one shift, the Montana cop casually told his Los Angeles colleagues that he was going to fill his rental car at a gas station. It was 3 a.m.

“They said, ‘Are you crazy? You don’t stop for gas at that hour,’ ” recalled Young by telephone from Kalispell. “They had a (black-and-white police) car stand by while I filled up.”

Young spent a week in the LAPD’s Homicide Investigation School as well as a week in the field before returning to his 25-man Police Department in Kalispell (pop.: 11,000).

“I learned a lot of stuff,” he said, “how to lift (finger) prints, how to take blood samples, that sort of thing. I just hope I don’t have to use it up here.”

Gov. George Deukmejian will join the local legion of cellular-phone traffic tipsters this morning when he makes the rush-hour crawl on the San Diego Freeway from Long Beach to Beverly Hills. He’ll phone in traffic reports from his van along the way to various local radio stations. “Guess his handle will be Delta Duke,” said Bill Keene of KNX.

Deukmejian’s Long Beach-Beverly Hills jaunt is intended to promote van pooling as well as Proposition 74, a $1-billion transportation bond measure on the June 7 ballot.

Keene, whose regulars go by such sobriquets as Gator Lips and the Road Warrior, said Delta Duke won’t be his first celebrity correspondent: “I’ve heard from Angie Dickinson and Chevy Chase and--this one really stunned me--Roger Mahony. I asked, ‘You mean the archbishop?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ He was phoning from the Pomona Freeway, I think. Later, I sent him an invitation to a party we had for our tipsters. He sent a very nice letter back saying that he couldn’t attend but that he’d continue to phone us.”

No, the archbishop doesn’t use a handle.

Sure, you just made a big deal on your car telephone. But can you get the contract while still on the freeway? Now you can--and not from the guy in the next lane.

Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories is offering a car fax machine for just $2,410. The portable 12-volt unit plugs into your cigarette lighter (and you thought you didn’t need a lighter!) and your cellular phone. It can send and receive documents to and from other facsimile machines.

“So many people seem to be doing business over their phones that we figured that some would want fax machines too,” said store owner Andrew Cohen. “Besides, there are always people out there who want the latest gadgets.”

This is the company that also offers such essentials as couches made out of Mercedes-Benz trunks ($10,000), battery-operated mini-cars for kids ($2,500 to $14,000) and remote car starters for drivers who like to warm up the family chariot while reading the morning newspaper ($350).

A car fax machine is, of course, ideal for the rush hour here. Plenty of time during all those stops on the freeway to read the fine print.