HUNTINGTON BEACH : Officers to Begin Community Plan

The city’s plan for community-based policing will go into effect on Jan. 16, but police already have unintentionally previewed how it will work.

Several weeks ago, police received complaints about men who would jump out from under a canopy of overgrown trees and bushes at Huntington Central Park, exposing themselves to joggers and bike riders.

Rather than dispatch vice officers to make arrests, Lt. John Foster said, police contacted officials in the Parks and Public Works departments who then had the overgrowth removed.

With the elimination of the hiding places, the activity appears to have nearly ceased, Foster said.

Though the incidents in the park involved only a relatively small number of residents rather than an entire neighborhood, the interaction between residents, police and city departments is a good example of how the new policing concept is expected to bring about solutions, officials said.

With sharp increases in crime, gang and drug activity straining police resources, said Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg, the community-oriented policing strategy offers the best chance for keeping some trouble under control.

“Crime and public safety are community problems,” Lowenberg said in a report to the City Council. “The community and police must work together to solve them. . . . A new Police Department will be shaped that will dramatically change the way police service is delivered in Huntington Beach.”

Lowenberg said the emphasis on solving problems is “an evolutionary step in helping law enforcement work smarter, not harder.”

The program will put an emphasis on analyzing incidents and finding solutions, he said.

Lt. Patrick F. Gildea, the department’s transition manager for the new program, said people will be asked to “take back the community.”

“(The people) are the eyes and the ears,” Gildea said. “They see the things that are happening.”

The city will be divided into three geographic sectors, but for the most part the officers will report to work at the main police station at the Civic Center before going out into the neighborhoods.

“We will try to get them out of the cars as much as possible so they will get to know the people (and their problems),” said Lt. Luis Ochoa, commander of the eastern section. Ochoa expects to have about 30 patrol officers under his command.

Police Chief Lowenberg said his department can implement the new concept without adding personnel or spending major sums.

Lowenberg said violent crime and gangs have been moving into the city at an increasingly rapid rate.

“We are at that point that we have our finger stuck in the dike and the water is ready to come up over the top,” Lowenberg told the City Council.

On Dec. 21, the City Council approved a resolution supporting the Police Department in moving ahead with the program.