Officer Offers to Donate Time to Patrol Street

A Los Angeles police officer who grew up in the San Fernando Valley offered Friday to donate his time to patrol Blythe Street one day a week for the next three months as a way of thanking residents for their support.

But he probably won’t be able to follow up on his offer.

Officer Ken Bracken, 35, made the gesture after learning that apartment owners along a half-mile stretch of Blythe between Van Nuys Boulevard and Brimfield Avenue in Panorama City had offered to raise $35,000 to pay for increased police patrols of the crime-ridden area.

“The community is just wonderful to us, and I think it’s time we extended a helping hand to them,” said Bracken, who is assigned to the Hollywood Division. “I think we can drive out the drug dealers if we get some more officers out there.”

Bracken’s supervisor, Sgt. John Zrofsky, described Bracken as having “an unusual dedication to the community. He’s not religious or anything--he just has a strong sense of what’s right and wrong.”

Cmdr. William Booth called Bracken’s offer “absolutely the attitude we like to see in all our people.” But he said department regulations and state labor laws probably prohibit the arrangement.