11 Special-Detail Officers to Be Switched to Street Patrols

Los Angeles police administrators in the San Fernando Valley said Thursday that they will move six officers from plainclothes enforcement teams and five officers assigned administrative chores to uniformed street patrols.

The change was prompted by Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams’ directive to increase the number of uniformed officers on city streets, said Lt. Joseph Garcia, a spokesman for Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, the head of police operations in the Valley.

Williams in December began promising community groups an increase in the number of patrol officers by shifting police from special assignment teams.

In the Valley--which has about 1,500 sworn officers--nine of the 35 or so officers assigned to gang, auto theft and special surveillance teams will return to regular patrol duties, Garcia said.

The change in assignment will be completed by the end of the month, Garcia said.

Two more officers--one assigned to serve as a liaison with city and county prosecutors at Valley courts, and a second assigned to Kroeker’s office--will also return to patrol work.

“It will not cripple me,” said Sgt. Paul Mattson, head of the Valley’s Covert Operation to Battle Recidivist Activities, a unit of undercover officers who follow suspected felons and one of the special units losing officers. “Before I had the ability to work two and three surveillance operations, and now maybe I’ll have only two.”

Mattson’s crew averages more than 100 arrests each year, mostly for felony crimes, he said.

“Naturally it hurts to lose these people,” Mattson said. “But I work for the chief, and if he says, ‘You lose them,’ you lose them.”

Detective Bob Graybill will also lose three officers from his auto theft unit, called Community Effort to Combat Auto Theft. Last year, his crew recovered 353 stolen cars, estimated to be worth $2.8 million. The team also made 337 arrests.

“We’re going to survive,” Graybill said. “This unit gets its cars and other equipment donated from companies in the Valley. The only thing LAPD pays for is salaries.”

The Valley Bureau’s gang detail will also lose three officers who now help compile records and statistics, police said.