Paid Guard OKd for State Lawmaker in Southland : Crime: Sen. Teresa Hughes, who fears she could become a victim, will be accompanied by an off-duty LAPD officer while in Los Angeles. Reaction in her district is mixed.

State Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood), expressing fears she could become a crime victim, has received permission to hire at taxpayer expense an off-duty Los Angeles police officer to accompany her on legislative business at night and on weekends.

“We haven’t had a scarier time in our Los Angeles history than we have right now,” Hughes said. “As a person alone, it is very treacherous.”

She said she needs the extra protection wherever she might go in the Los Angeles area, not only in her district, which stretches from Compton to the South Bay and has pockets of high crime.

In what is believed to be a first, the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday agreed to hire an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, Freddie Booker, for Hughes’ personal protection. He will be paid $30 an hour, up to $900 a month, from the Senate’s budget.

In an interview Thursday, Hughes said she had no recent firsthand experience with crime in the Los Angeles area, but she said she did not want to take chances, particularly with carjackers. When she is not in Sacramento, Hughes said, she must give speeches and attend community functions late at night and on weekends.

“There’s been lots of carjackings and lots of crime,” said Hughes. “It makes good sense these days for people to be traveling in twos.”

In her district, reaction to Hughes’ move ranged from shock to support.

“I would hope that our senator would scrutinize very carefully her decision to ask the taxpayers for a bodyguard,” said Inglewood City Councilman Garland Hardeman, a Los Angeles police officer. “It sends the wrong message . . . to the general public. And the message is there is no hope that things are going to get better if it’s gotten to the point that we have to pay for a bodyguard for elected officials.”

But several representatives of chambers of commerce in the district said they have no problem with Hughes having a personal bodyguard, even at taxpayer expense.

Hawthorne Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Alex Schmidt said the Los Angeles area is not safe after dark for men or women.

“Society has gone completely upside down,” he said. “Any lady, and especially an elected official, has the right to protection.”

Tom Parks, executive vice president of the Gardena Valley Chamber of Commerce, said Gardena has less crime than other parts of Hughes’ district, but he does not begrudge her the protection.

“We’re not free of crime, certainly,” Parks said. “I guess if she feels that there is a need for it and she’s concerned, she must have her reasons. I’ve had conversations with her and she seems to be a very dedicated, concerned legislator.”

Compton City Councilwoman Patricia Moore said she understood Hughes’ fears.

“Given Sen. Hughes’ position and the fact that she is a woman out there trying to do things, I think the taxpayers will understand that,” Moore said. “I have had threats made against me so I have men who are black belts (in martial arts) who travel with me” free of charge.

Moore said Hughes isn’t asking for more protection than “the President, the governor, the district attorney or the police chief” get at taxpayer expense.

The senator said Booker suggested she needed personal security “because he knew how dangerous” it is for a woman to travel alone.

Booker has a desk job in the LAPD’s Office of Operations, which coordinates patrol functions for the department. He could not be reached for comment.

Senate sources said that ordinarily if a senator needs an extra measure of security in Southern California, it is provided by the state police or a Los Angeles-based member of the unarmed Senate security staff.

One elected official in Hughes’ district who did not want to be named said that is the route Hughes should have taken.

“I can’t believe she would do that, as if nobody’s looking,” the official said of Hughes’ request for a personal bodyguard paid for with taxes. “That’s too much.”

Times staff writers Janet Rae-Dupree and Michele Fuetsch contributed to this story.