City Approves Lease on Police Station in Mall
The Los Angeles City Council approved a 10-year lease Tuesday on a small satellite police station that has been operating in the Topanga Plaza shopping center since June.
The council voted without comment to accept an offer from Topanga Plaza’s management to lease office space in the mall for $1 a year for 10 years.
The two officers assigned to the satellite station have handled dozens of calls--primarily shoplifting arrests--each week at Topanga Plaza and the nearby Promenade and Fallbrook malls.
The two officers also walk beats in Topanga Plaza and show shop operators how to protect their businesses from theft.
Police administrators said placing the officers at the shopping centers enables the department to process arrests quickly--the office includes a makeshift holding cell. Before the satellite office was opened, officers had to be pulled off patrol to pick up shoplifting suspects arrested by mall security guards.
The satellite station is in a suite of management offices at the mall. Plans are under way to provide the department with a storefront location, said Bill Dobner, general manager of Topanga Plaza.
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