Computer Helps Curb Hollywood Boulevard Cruisers

The gang from “American Graffiti” only had to worry about a few inept cops. But real-life “cruisers” along Hollywood Boulevard now have to deal with both the police and the NEC multispeed H-D.

That’s the brand name of two portable computers on loan to the Los Angeles Police Department, which has begun using them in a pilot project to regulate youthful traffic along Hollywood Boulevard.

On weekend nights, police set up the machines at both ends of a strip where low-rider sedans and souped-up trucks compete noisily with tourist buses and cross-town cars for four lanes of asphalt.

2-Time Limit in 2 Hours

The computers have been specially programmed to store license plate numbers typed in by police and volunteers, and to emit a beep when the same number appears twice.

Under a 2-year-old city ordinance, it is a crime to drive along certain streets more than twice in two hours. Violators can be fined $100 for their first offense, and up to $250 for subsequent infractions, provided that they were first given a written warning.

“The program has been very effective,” said Sgt. Steve Yadon, who heads the LAPD’S Hollywood Boulevard Task Force, a 22-member team that in the past relied on barricades and other methods to control street crowds. “People see us out here taking enforcement actions. It sobers them up a little bit.”

Since the computer project was started last week, only one citation has been issued for cruising. But police said they wrote up hundreds of other violations, ranging from Vehicle Code infractions to weapons possession.

Officers say the anti-cruising effort is necessary to control a situation that has gone beyond an innocent mating ritual.

“Cruising is a longstanding tradition on Hollywood Boulevard,” said Police Lt. Frank Pegueros. “I cruised the boulevard many years ago. But recently we’ve noticed an increase in gang members trying to stake out territory. . . . Within the last few months, we’ve had fights and shootings. Our whole effort out here is to help keep that down.”

“All we’re doing is flirting,” insisted Claudia Maya, 18, who drove her Datsun B-210 from San Gabriel--a 45-minute trip--on Friday night with her friend, Jennifer Garner. “We’re just out to have fun.”

“Computers. That’s taking it to the limit,” she said.

“Taxpayers are paying for this ?” asked David Biggs, 19, as he slowed the “baddest Bug on the Strip”--a 1965 raspberry-colored Volkswagen convertible into which he has sunk $15,000 worth of chrome, leather and electronics. “The law sucks. Do you think it’s right for all these police to be out here, with that equipment? What’s the use? We’ll just turn around and go to Sunset Boulevard.”

‘Part of the Glamour’

Added Biggs’ friend and fellow cruiser Sergio Moncada, 23: “This is the only outlet kids have to have fun. There aren’t any (gang) shootings up here anyway. Cruising is part of the glamour of Hollywood. That’s why the tourists come.”

The computerized cruising control system baffled Guy Chamberland, a tourist from Quebec City, Canada.

“In our country, you can pass 10 times on the same street without a problem,” he said. “This is very strange.”

But to a spokesman for a civil liberties group, the situation is clear enough.

“It’s selective enforcement by stereotype,” Joel Maliniak of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said last week. “Right up front, the police are saying what kind of car they are looking for. . . . It’s a scary thought that I’ll have my license plate recorded for posterity, simply because I cruised the block three times.”

Police denied that the license plate data are kept longer than a few hours.

“We print out and analyze the information that night,” Officer Randy Ryan said.

Pegueros said: “We’re not building an information base. We throw it out.”

As cars inched past the police checkpoint near Hollywood Boulevard and Gower Street late Friday night, Ryan called out selected license plate numbers to a civilian volunteer, who sat at the computer.

“We try to distinguish between who’s cruising and who’s here for legitimate business purposes,” Pegueros said. “Once you’ve been out here a while, you develop a sense of who’s cruising and who’s not cruising.”

But, he added, “We really don’t have a profile.”

The one cruising ticket issued Friday night went to the driver of a lowered car occupied by a man and three women, which had passed the checkpoint three times. “They said they were tourists, but they had Bellflower addresses, in-state plates and a lowrider,” a police officer said.

The computer project--modeled after one in Newport Beach--was initiated at the request of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which put down $1,300 to rent the machines for a month, after merchants complained that police barricades were hurting business.

“We want to keep the street available for emergency vehicles, and for potential customers. We’re trying to ease the financial strain,” said Bill Welsh, chamber president. “With the barricades, you got rid of cruisers but you also got rid of the customers.”

Bob Marks, owner of the Legends of Hollywood Delicatessen/Restaurant, said: “Our problem wasn’t with cruising. Customers come just to sit and watch the cruisers. It’s a phenomenal thing. Cars dancing in the street.

“Our problem was with police handling the problem. . . . Two months ago they started to close the boulevard. That’s when we started to have heart attacks. Businesses lost a total of $40,000 every weekend. . . . But the new program has been working beautifully. If they’ll only keep it up, we’ll be able to build Hollywood back up again.”

But cruiser Claudia Maya was undeterred.

“If they stop us here, everybody will go to Sunset (Boulevard),” she said. “I met my boyfriend cruising here. He’s in jail now for drunk driving. . . . I’m pretty sure when he gets out, we’re still going to cruise.”