VALLEY COPS / Against the odds

The population is growing, police resources are dwindling. Still, major crime in the San Fernando Valley generally declined in the last year--or at least did not increase. Authorities partly credit community-based policing--from Neighborhood Watch to civilian video surveillance teams--with keeping burglary and robbery in check. In 1992, for example, burglaries rose only 1%. A year earlier, they had jumped 14%.

Homicides were also down last year, although gang-related killings were a record 52, up from 48 the year before and 36 in 1990.

The number of officers in the Valley Bureau, meanwhile, has declined with budget cuts. In the last 12 months, 57 officer positions were lost, leaving 1,392 officers to serve a population slightly bigger than Dallas--a city which has 2,874 officers.

Nonetheless, The Times Poll found that only 52% of Valley voters supported Proposition 1, the unsuccessful measure that would have raised taxes to hire 1,000 additional officers citywide.

*

A Day in Numbers

What does it take to police the Valley on a typical day? A statistical glance: Patrol officers on duty: 448 Detectives: 223 Patrol Cars: 225 Motorcycles: 44 Citations: 330 Crime reports: 160 Arrests: 102 Uses of force: 0 Shots fired: 0 Officers injured: 0

*

Outnumbered officers

In the Valley, the ratio of officers to residents is lower than in many major cities with about one officer for every 1,000 residents. Even Los Angeles as a whole has a better ratio. Valley: 1.1 per 1,000 Los Angeles: 2.2 per 1,000 New York: 3.8 per 1,000 Chicago: 4.1 per 1,000

* Facilities for the Future

Foothill.

Currently expanding cramped 24,000-square-foot station by 10,000 square feet. Also adding new parking lot. Completion date: November, 1994. North Hollywood.

Current antiquated station to be replaced by 36,000-square-foot, two-story facility Completion date: January, 1996. Driver Training Facility.

Granada Hills is the preferred site of a proposed training center. City Council expected to vote on the matter soon. Expected completion date: November, 1996. Recruit Training Center.

A site east of the Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar is under consideration for a new 27-acre training facility to replace the police Academy. Status: Environmental studies are under way. West Valley.

Expansion of current station proposed. Status: Uncertain. New Station.

A new patrol area, the 20th Station, is proposed for the central Valley. Status: Uncertain.

*

Views from the Street

How does policing the Valley differ from policing elsewhere in the LAPD?

“The Valley has been known for years as Sleepy Hollow, but it no longer is. You have your projects, you have your unemployment, you have your hangouts and your gangs. . .Your can’t have the attitude of complacency here that 20 years ago was OK to have.”--Sgt. John Amott, Valley Traffic Division.

“The big factor that makes the Valley unique is sprawl and inaccessibility . . .1,500 cops just fade into nothing when deployed into three shifts and 220 square miles.”--Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, top LAPD official in the Valley.

“It (Valley police force) is so far removed from the central city that it’s like its own police department. . .but mobility brings people here and we have much the same problems--the graffiti, the drugs and the gang killings related to gang lifestyle--that other places have.”--Lt. Stella Mattson, Foothill detective commander.