LAGUNA NIGUEL : Law Enforcement Policies to Continue

Joseph Davis, the chief at the sheriff’s station in Laguna Niguel, learned something when he attended the League of California Cities conference earlier this month in Los Angeles.

“After hearing police chiefs from around the state talk about community policing policies,” said Davis, who has been chief for two years, “I realized we had stumbled upon it. And I think we are doing it the way it should be done.”

As a result, Davis and his 22 deputies and an additional five sergeants, two detectives and one parking control officer will continue the policing techniques they have been using in this largely peaceable bedroom community of about 50,000 residents.

“I told my (deputies) that they must shake hands with every customer they come into contact with,” he said. “The officers are supposed to say: ‘Hello, I am Officer Davis, and you are under arrest,’ and then shake their hand.”

When asked what happens to that policy when confronted with an armed suspect, Davis tells his deputies: “If the guy is holding a gun, you don’t have to shake his hand.”

Armed suspects are fairly rare in the city, and so when it came time for budget requests, Davis asked for no increases in the number of deputies assigned to his unit. The only addition he sought was an investigator, someone who would follow up on minor incidents.

“It says something about a police agency when this year we didn’t have to ask for more cops on the street,” he said. The city spends about $3.5 million to contract for the services of Davis and his deputies.

Laguna Niguel remained one of the safest places in the county during 1991. As a result, law enforcement officers have time to shake hands and mingle with the public; they patrol a city that really has no street gangs, no homeless people and few murders or rapes.

According to countywide crime statistics for 1991, the city had only 96 violent crimes, the fourth lowest rate. Stanton, a city with a population of about 30,000, ranked first in the county with 402 violent crimes.

And while there are no gangs in Laguna Niguel, the 1992-93 city budget contains an $18,000 expense to join several other cities to underwrite a gang suppression unit jointly operated by the Sheriff’s Department and the County Probation Department.

When the gang suppression idea was first presented, Davis’ immediate reaction was that the city did not have gangs and did not need it.

“Now, it is clear that we have been successful going into the schools to talk to students and talk to parents about prevention,” he said. “When you have a community like this, you have to be proactive rather than reactive as most law enforcement agencies.”

As part of their involvement with the community, his “deputies coach football teams . . . (and) they also hand out refrigerator magnets to kids that say: ‘Drug Abuse is Life Abuse,’ ” Davis said. “We do the little things and that is the stuff I am proud of.”

However, one of those little things upset some residents this summer. Davis drew fire for his support of an ordinance to ban BB guns. The ordinance sparked outrage from some residents and even the National Rifle Assn.

“One guy called me a fascist” for supporting the ban, Davis said.