Baldwin Park : Bulletproof Partitions OKd

The City Council has approved the construction of bulletproof partitions that will separate the public from police records clerks in the Police Department lobby.

Although the council has twice before voted down such partitions, fearing that they would alienate people seeking help from the police, it unanimously approved $2,500 for the job Wednesday after Police Chief Carmine R. Lanza said the lobby is vulnerable to attacks by violent or mentally unstable people.

Currently, a four-foot-high counter is all that separates the civilian clerks from the public, many of whom are agitated and threaten violence, Lanza said. Once, he said, an angry person threw an ashtray at a clerk, but missed.