KING CASE AFTERMATH: A CITY IN CRISIS : Beverly Hills Police Able to Keep Peace

Though the community is surrounded on all sides by Los Angeles, there has been no looting and no arson in Beverly Hills.

“We would not allow it,” a secretary at the Beverly Hills Fire Department said.

At the Beverly Hills Police Department, whose new headquarters are nice but not quite as nice as Eddie Murphy’s glitzy digs in the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies, detectives have put on their uniforms and hit the streets.

“The idea is to saturate the whole city with police officers and deter crimes,” said Police Lt. Frank Salcido, whose department has one officer for every 244 residents, contrasted with one officer per 420 residents in Los Angeles.

As of Friday afternoon, the 127-officer force had made 66 riot-related arrests. Most occurred Thursday, when carloads of looters crossed the city line.

One group of six was in a pickup truck filled with television sets and other loot near San Vicente and Wilshire boulevards.

“Guys were hanging off the side of the truck, yelling and screaming,” Salcido said.

After leading officers on a short chase, the six suspects abandoned their truck at a gas station and ran in different directions. There were enough officers, Salcido said, and all were caught.

The city’s fire engines have been sent to downtown Los Angeles and South Los Angeles to help out.

“It’s been a memorable experience and we’ll be quite pleased when it’s over,” Chief William M. Daley said Friday after one crew returned from fighting 10 overnight fires in South Los Angeles. Other Beverly Hills engine companies put out sizable blazes in the Fairfax district.

The city’s regular staffing of 25 firefighters a day has been doubled for the duration of the disturbances, providing enough workers and trucks to help Los Angeles while increasing protection for Beverly Hills beyond the level needed for its usual two- to three-minute response time.

Police saw a group of men Friday afternoon tearing out the security grating at a Big 5 sporting goods store, just across the city line in Los Angeles.

Three were arrested, but Salcido said officers have been told to avoid outside entanglements.

“We don’t want to tie anyone up,” Salcido said. “We want to maintain our high profile, so we’re telling (Beverly Hills officers) to stay out of L.A., not to get involved in the L.A. crimes.”