ANAHEIM : Public Gets Tough on Park Crime

Drug dealing in Pearson Park was so blatant that when a city crew went to videotape the problems, the dealers simply finished their sales and then made an obscene gesture at the cameraman.

“We had dealers who were just dropping cocaine rocks into their customers’ hands rather than just handing it to them” secretly, said Chris Jarvi, Anaheim’s parks and recreation director.

The city and nearby residents, however, hope that those days of open criminal activity are over.

On Friday, more than 100 neighbors kicked off a “Park Watch” program, under which residents will walk through the city’s oldest park daily to look out for and report illegal activity. The city helped initiate the program by posting signs in English and Spanish warning would-be criminals that they are being watched.

The start of the Park Watch campaign culminated seven months of meetings between the residents and the city, which began when residents complained that the park was being overrun by crime. At the time, the city responded by saying that while crime undoubtedly existed in the park, police were receiving few calls from its neighbors and encouraged further cooperation from nearby residents.

The neighbors agreed, and more than 400 got together to organize the park patrol.

“This is still a park that families use and we want to take it back before the drug dealers take it over,” said Karen Ybarra, a neighbor and a Hughes Aircraft administrator. She said she has witnessed drug deals in the park.

John Rodenbour, a leader of the neighborhood group, said patrols will also target drug buyers and that neighbors will note the license plate numbers of alleged buyers’ cars and report them to the police.

Christopher George, chief of the city’s 17 unarmed park rangers, said his department has doubled its patrols of the park in recent months at the neighbors’ urging.

“There is no question that there are a lot of problems in the park,” George said. “It is close to the (Santa Ana) freeway and Harbor Boulevard, and Anaheim also has one of the highest numbers of outside visitors of any city. The city also has some money in it. All of that makes it attractive to dealers.”

Sgt. Craig Hunter of the Anaheim Police Department said patrols by both squad cars and undercover officers have been beefed up in recent months, and more than 100 drug-related arrests have been made in the park.

“We are also educating the neighbors (in the watch program on) what they should be looking for--people meeting others for short periods, the exchange of money, people who hide things in the grass and shrubbery,” Hunter said.

Ybarra said she is taking part in the patrols for the sake of her infant daughter.

“I want her to be able to use the park when she is old enough,” she said.