Police Act to Stem Tide of Drunk Driving in Pacoima

There was the man who stood there laughing, somehow finding humor in the fact that he could not walk a straight line on the sidewalk but had managed to drive along San Fernando Road without a mishap.

There was the surfer who swore he hadn’t been drinking. But a breath-analysis test showed that he had, and in fact was drunk. Then came the lady who tried to weave her way around the roadblock. Her car was eventually forced to the side of the road by police officers.

“Have you been drinking tonight, ma’am?” one officer asked.

“Oh, about a 12-pack,” she replied.

“Takes all the guessing out of it, doesn’t it?” another officer said.

By the time the six-hour sobriety checkpoint was over Saturday night, 27 people had been arrested for driving while intoxicated on San Fernando Road at the border of Pacoima and San Fernando. For the northeast San Fernando Valley, and for a holiday weekend, that number was somewhat surprising. It was low.

Authorities say that with more than 90 bars, liquor stores and restaurants that serve alcohol--many clustered on the same blocks in Pacoima--drinking-related problems are rampant.

Dubious Distinction

The result is that the area has more than its share of drunken drivers, making the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division--which encompasses Pacoima, Sylmar and Lake View Terrace--the perennial leader in the city’s statistics on serious injuries and fatal traffic accidents attributed to alcohol.

“After 10 o’clock at night, it seems like every other driver we stop has been drinking,” Capt. Bruce Mitchell, commander of the Valley Traffic Division, said of the area.

The problem has prompted a crackdown by police and the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. While officers will continue efforts to catch drunk drivers, an added focus is on the businesses that sell alcohol. Authorities say many of the bar and store owners exercise little control over whom they sell alcohol to or how much their customers are served.

“Things have gotten too loose,” said Capt. Tim McBride, commander of Foothill Division.

“A few months ago, we sent a 19-year-old, a minor, into 46 stores and she was able to buy beer at 45 of the places,” McBride said. “That’s terrible. I would expect 20%, not almost 99%.”

Police believe that arrest and accident statistics from the area reflect the severity of the problem.

750 Arrests

There have been more than 750 drunk-driving arrests in the Pacoima area in the last 16 months, police said. Foothill Division statistics for 1988 show 52 alcohol-related traffic accidents resulting in serious injury, including 11 deaths. That was more than in any of the department’s 17 other divisions.

West Valley Division, which includes Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, Reseda, Tarzana and Encino, came closest to Foothill with 48 serious accidents, including 7 deaths.

In the first four months of this year, Foothill had 22 alcohol-related accidents in which there were serious injuries, including three fatalities. A fourth fatality occurred Sunday night when a suspected drunken motorist, driving on the wrong side of Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Pacoima, crashed head-on into another car. The other driver was slightly injured.

This year’s accidents show about a 20% decrease in the pace set last year, but the division again is in at least a tie for the top of the city’s alcohol-related accident count. The only comparable division is Van Nuys, where there were 20 accidents and four deaths in the first four months.

(In the department’s entire South Bureau, which includes four divisions serving more than 500,000 residents--2 1/2 times as many as the Foothill Division--there were only 14 alcohol-related accidents, including three deaths, in the first four months of the year.)

‘Serious Problem’

“When you look at the accident picture, it is a serious problem,” McBride said of the Foothill area. “We run into an awful lot of people who are driving drunk. We don’t have as many cars or people as other parts of the city, but every year we have the most accidents” that are alcohol related.

Authorities offer a number of reasons for that distinction.

Many bars and liquor stores are clustered in the area of San Fernando Road and Van Nuys Boulevard, particularly on Van Nuys between Glenoaks and Laurel Canyon boulevards. Authorities say the area already has problems with street drug activity, urban blight, high numbers of unemployed people, and others with little money for recreational pursuits outside the area.

Authorities said they believe that many of the bars routinely serve already intoxicated customers and minors. Jim Smith, a district administrator for ABC, said many of the bars in the area are known to employ “B-girls,” women who are paid to sit with male customers and encourage them to drink.

Authorities said many of the businesses provide paper cups to take drinks outside and do little to discourage customers from loitering and drinking in parking lots or on nearby properties.

Licensees Criticized

“In the Pacoima area you have a lot of irresponsible licensees,” Smith said. “It is a problem area for us.”

It has given the area an unwanted reputation, authorities and residents say.

“People know these are places they can go and get drunk to the gills,” said Fred Taylor, a member of the Pacoima Coordinating Council, a citizens group that has begun working with stores and bars to curb alcohol violations. “As long as they have money, the bartender is going to pour.”

To combat the problem, authorities announced last week that police drunk-driving patrols will be stepped up, as will the enforcement of operating codes in bars and sales establishments.

When police arrest drunk drivers or publicly intoxicated people, they will routinely ask what bars or stores served them. The names of those establishments will be passed on to vice officers and ABC agents who will conduct undercover investigations to determine if the businesses are serving intoxicated patrons.

A store or bar employee who serves an already drunk customer can be cited for a misdemeanor, which can lead to suspension of a business’s state alcoholic beverage license.

Civil Action Possible

Police said they can also use the information to seek the closure of establishments as public nuisances, a civil procedure similar to efforts by the city attorney’s office to seize or close down apartments and businesses where drugs are sold.

Last week, Officers George Selleh and Ian Hall visited bars in the Foothill Division to explain the new enforcement to owners and managers and seek their cooperation.

“We are giving them fair warning,” Hall said.

The officers said the operators were cooperative, many putting up signs provided by police that caution against drunk driving or selling to minors and intoxicated patrons. But not all of them are happy about the enforcement.

“I am not angry, but it seems that if the police keep coming in here, it looks bad for the bar,” said Irene Lujano, operator of Irene’s bar on San Fernando Road. “We can’t control who comes in here, but we do not serve drunks in this bar. We are not part of any problem, if there is one.”

Community groups also have stepped up efforts to pressure liquor stores and bars to be more responsible. Many of those involved believe that curing the area’s alcohol-related problems is a key step to improving the community’s image and tackling other ills, such as street drug activity.

Alcohol Top Priority

“The first line of defense is to control alcohol problems,” said Taylor, of the Pacoima Coordinating Council. “You can’t get a handle on drug problems until you get a handle on the alcohol problems.”

In the past year, members of the council have begun asking liquor stores and bars to make improvements, such as adding security guards to control loitering and public drunkenness.

Liquor stores have been asked to establish earlier closing hours, such as 10 p.m., and curtail the sale of pipes and other drug-related equipment, paper cups for alcoholic drinks, single cans of beer and small bottles of wine and liquor.

Three times this year, the group has sought hearings before city zoning officials to discuss alcohol-related problems at a group of three Pacoima liquor stores.

The zoning department issues conditional-use permits to businesses, allowing them to operate. Members of the citizens group say they want to play a role in setting conditions on permits for liquor stores and bars in the Pacoima area.

So far, the results have been good. Of the three stores the group focused on, two have cooperated and made changes such as closing earlier and increasing security. The operator of one store cut down a tree behind the business that was a favorite place for loiterers to drink. Both operators are now members of the citizens group.

The third store’s owner has refused to work with the group, and members plan to ask a zoning hearing this week to order the improvements they want.

“We know we are not going to stop the sale of alcohol,” said Augie Maldonado, a member of the citizens group. “We just want the sellers to be responsible. We are willing to work with them to accomplish that.”