Community Policing / North Hills

THE PROGRAM: The Los Angeles Police Department has assigned 31 officers to full-time community relations duty in the San Fernando Valley. The officers, who in the past spent only a few hours a month on such duty, now work full-time with neighborhood organizations and individuals. One of the 31 areas is described below:

THE OFFICER: John Girard, Devonshire Division, (818) 908-4011

THE AREA: Girard patrols quiet residential neighborhoods and some high-crime areas along Sepulveda Boulevard. Narcotics and gangs are common, along with auto theft and burglary. “It’s been termed bad,” he says. “But I don’t think of it as a bad area. I think of it as a challenging area. We recently had 500 people show up at a meeting and say they were committed to improving the area.”