Volunteers Tune In to Crime Patrols

Jaeis Chon, coordinator of the volunteer Koreatown Ham Watch Team, keeps sketches of two men stuck on the dashboard of his truck. The faces of the suspects wanted in two Koreatown murders remind him why he and other volunteers give up their Friday nights to patrol the streets of Koreatown.

“We want them bad,” Chon said, pointing to the police sketches of the suspects, one of whom allegedly shot and killed a friend of Chon’s in the 300 block of South Harvard Boulevard on Oct. 11.

Police officers say the volunteers are not vigilantes; they are equipped only with small ham radios and a training manual prepared for them by the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Our goal is to prevent crimes and to have all citizens watching out for each other,” said Chon, a health-food manufacturer. “Of course we need more police officers, but before people complain, they should do their part to make their communities safer.”

Operating under the supervision of the Police Department’s Wilshire Division, the Korean-American patrol members serve as additional trained eyes and ears for the police, said Officer Steve Uhrig.

Uhrig and Officer Ronald M. Smith have taught the patrol members, most of whom work in Koreatown, to watch for suspicious activity and to radio information to patrolling police cars as officers make their rounds from Normandie Avenue to Crenshaw Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard to Olympic Boulevard.

“Our first concern is that they operate safely,” Uhrig said. That means that the volunteers don’t confront suspects or get involved in chases, he said.

The 20 or so volunteers--who alternate patrol duties--use their own cars and radios, which they are licensed to operate by the Federal Communication Commission. As they patrol, the volunteers speak Korean with Chon, who usually rides with a police officer and translates for the officer and other police cars.

In November, patrol members spotted a robbery at a small market and alerted the police, who arrested two suspects, Chon said. Two weeks ago, patrol members saw a cabdriver being robbed at gunpoint on Olympic Boulevard, but the suspects eluded officers.

Later that night, patrol member Jong Kim translated for officers who had detained three Spanish-speaking suspects in a petty theft. Kim translated from Spanish to Korean and then Chon translated from Korean to English.

The Koreatown ham patrol has been operating about 18 months. During the last year, the overall crime rate in the portion of Koreatown covered by the patrol has dropped about 18%, Uhrig said.

While the patrol is only one factor in the reduction of crimes, “it is definitely a deterrent,” Uhrig said. “The word gets out and people know we’re all out here.”

A smaller, separate group of ham radio operators patrols part of the Wilshire area on Saturday nights, but the officers seem to have developed a particular affinity for the Korean team. “(Uhrig and Smith) even call us on their vacations just to check on us,” Chon said.

“We call ourselves ‘ham watch-oholics,’ ” Uhrig said. “I like working Wilshire just so I can do this on Friday nights.”

Added Chon: “If we miss a week we get itchy to go.”