‘Syringe’ Case Boosts Community Policing : Crime: Supporters of the law-enforcement program say contact with citizens led to the arrest of a suspect.

The arrest of a drug user and paroled robber as the alleged “syringe bandit” is a feather in the cap of community-based policing, a prime illustration of the benefits of police and civilians working together to solve crime, the program’s advocates said Wednesday.

“This is probably one of the most outstanding examples you’re going to see,” said Los Angeles Police Capt. Vance M. Proctor, commander of the northern San Fernando Valley patrol area where most of the holdups took place.

The district attorney’s office said Wednesday that charges will be filed today against Wesley G. Pledger of Northridge, accusing him of being the bandit who threatened victims in eight holdups last week with a hypodermic needle he said contained his own AIDS-infected blood. A spokesman said the 10 charges will include robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

No one was injured in the holdups, which occurred in Northridge and Canoga Park, not far from Pledger’s home, and police said they had no immediate plans to test Pledger for the AIDS virus.

“There’s really no reason to,” said Lt. John M. Dunkin, a department spokesman. “He didn’t actually cause any physical injury with the syringe.”

Pledger, who authorities said has a history of robbing small businesses to support a heroin habit, was identified by police as a possible suspect late last week. A former employer of Pledger recognized him in a photograph that officers distributed to local businesses as part of the community-policing program launched in the Valley last summer.

The photo, obtained from a videotape of the robbery of a Northridge 7-Eleven, given by community relations officer Jim Dellinger to a private security company, HMI Associates of Woodland Hills. HMI handed out the photo to its clients, including a firm where Pledger had recently been fired as a fast-food cook.

Pledger, who police said was identified by at least four witnesses during a lineup Tuesday night, was being held at the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail.

He was taken into custody Saturday for a parole violation after his parole officer, alerted by police to Pledger’s possible involvement, found a cocaine pipe in his car, said police and a spokesman for the state parole office.

Proctor credited community-based policing, a law enforcement philosophy that promotes problem-solving and crime prevention, with turning up clues in the case.

“It gave Officer Dellinger the time to go around in his business-watch community, contact key people, give them the photograph of the suspect, provide some information to them,” Proctor said.

Dellinger, a 24-year police veteran, said he was with Proctor at a community meeting Tuesday night when they received word that Pledger had been positively identified in a lineup.

“He and I both looked at each other and cheered and did everything but high-fived ourselves in front of 125 people,” Dellinger said Wednesday.

The only child of working-class parents, Pledger has a criminal history that fits a standard portrait of a drug user who robbed to support his habit, said Jerry DiMaggio, regional administrator for the state Office of Parole.

Pledger grew up in the San Fernando Valley and told parole officers he graduated from Chatsworth High School. He said he has used heroin, cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines, DiMaggio said. Pledger also said he had served in the Navy and attended community colleges in the Valley and Daytona Beach, Fla.

Since 1984, Pledger has been convicted twice of being under the influence of heroin, once of burglarizing a discount tire store and once of petty theft from a Sears, Roebuck store, DiMaggio said.

In 1987, Pledger was convicted of a string of three armed robberies in which he used a knife or pretended to have a gun, DiMaggio said. At the time, Pledger told authorities he had been using $150 to $200 worth of heroin a day, DiMaggio said.

He was sentenced to seven years in state prison and paroled last June after serving about four years, DiMaggio said.

Since his release from prison, Pledger had been living with his mother and landed a job as a cook. Periodic urine tests have shown him to be free of drugs. Results of a test taken after his arrest Saturday were not yet available, DiMaggio said.