Police Hope New Decor Will Help Arrest Tension

In most police stations, the “fish” are the ones in the jail cells. But at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division, the fish were in the front lobby Thursday.

And none of them wore handcuffs.

In an effort to become more “user-friendly,” police unveiled some unusual new lobby furnishings in the Pacoima station. There were the three new couches, a coffee table and, of course, the 60-gallon aquarium. The new look gave the sometimes rough-and-tumble station the ambience of a doctor’s office.

And that’s good. Police administrators and members of a booster organization that bought the furnishings said the new lobby is designed to underscore the “serve” part of the department’s motto “To Protect and Serve.”

“I know that anytime you go into a dentist’s office or a police station, you are apprehensive,” said Capt. Tim McBride, the station’s commander. “And it’s a very calming thing to look at an aquarium. If it works at a doctor’s office, it should work at a police station.”

This is the same police station where a woman dropped off a few sticks of dynamite and where a car came crashing off Osborne Street, through the doors and right up to the front desk. Officers often make arrests in the lobby, and sometimes there are struggles.

But McBride said the change was needed to help show the community the station’s commitment to service. It is one of many service-oriented changes made at the station since the Rodney G. King incident occurred in its jurisdiction last year.

“It creates a warmer atmosphere,” McBride said. “People can be comfortable coming to the police station, no matter what they come in for.”

The aquarium was the idea of Bud Brown, president of the Foothill Advisory Booster Assn., which paid about $1,100 for the new furnishings.

“It looked like a very cold environment before,” he said. “It looks like a user-friendly lobby now.”

However, there will be more changes.

“Elevator music,” McBride said. “We want to put in some calm and soothing music next.”