Marchers Ask Police to Keep Drug Unit

More than 150 east San Fernando Valley residents marched in front of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division in Pacoima on Saturday to protest the temporary reassignment of a narcotics task force they said has successfully battled drug dealers in their neighborhoods.

The marchers included members of the Haddon-Mercer Homeowners Assn. and other residents of Pacoima, San Fernando and Mission Hills, who said reassignment of the department’s RECON unit was unfair and could allow drug dealers to return.

“We’re trying to send out a message that we are not going to tolerate this from the police,” said Irene Tovar, who coordinated the peaceful demonstration. “We’ve been taking down license plate numbers and taking pictures of transactions, but we can’t be the police. Only with their help can we regain control of our neighborhoods.”

RECON, which included six police officers and a supervisor who worked under cover, stands for Rapid Enforcement Concentrated on Narcotics. During the past 16 months, the unit’s members arrested and won convictions of about 1,000 drug dealers, Police Capt. Jim McBride said.

The task force officers were recently reassigned to regular uniformed patrol duty because the division’s emergency response time had risen from seven minutes to as much as 10 minutes, McBride said. He said the division had too few officers.

“It’s a temporary thing,” Capt. Valentino Paniccia said. “We just don’t have the people now.”

McBride said the RECON unit is still activated occasionally and will be reinstated later this year or early next year after more officers graduate from the police academy. But the protesters were not placated.

During the hourlong demonstration, they walked in front of the division’s headquarters, waving signs reading: “We Want Our Police Back” and “Give Our Streets Back to Our Children.”

“Those dealers that had been put in jail have served their time and are now back on the streets,” said Efran Olvera, homeowners association president. “Now they’re selling drugs again on the corner, right in front of our eyes. We need help now.”

McBride said the Foothill Division is receiving assistance from the Police Department’s narcotics section. He said those officers are still assigned to anti-drug police work.

But Tovar said it is not enough.

“We want RECON back,” she said.