Marina Sheriff’s Station Chief Named

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has appointed Clarence R. Chapman, a 24-year veteran of the department, as captain of the Marina del Rey station.

As captain of the Marina station, which covers the marina area and the communities of View Park, Windsor Hills and Ladera Heights, Chapman will be in charge of 72 deputies, including 15 deputies working the harbor boat patrol.

Chapman, 43, who has been meeting with community groups since his appointment, described the area as diverse.

“It has the marina, which is a high-density area with condominiums and concerns about traffic and development, and the residential communities of View Park, Ladera Heights and Windsor Hills, where the concerns are more about safe streets and safe schools,” he said.

Chapman has held several positions since joining the Sheriff’s Department in 1966. As a sergeant, he was a manager of a program that tracked career criminals. More recently, he served as a lieutenant in the narcotic bureau in Whittier.

“We targeted underground drug smuggling and distribution operations involving rock cocaine, primarily in the mid-city,” he said. “This (new assignment) is much less job-specific and very much less stressful. The drug problem is very frustrating because no matter how much effort we put in, it seems to escalate.”

Born in Columbus, Ohio, he moved to Los Angeles in 1960.