The Issues That Drive the 3rd District City Council Candidates : Incumbent: Lanark Park is a prime example of people acting in concert with elected officials and others to make community-based policing a success.

Not long ago, Lanark Park, a long-established community park in the West Valley, was shunned by the families who lived around it because it was overrun with drug dealers, defaced by graffiti and unsafe at all hours of the day. Parents would not allow their children to go near the park, and anyone who ventured there was certain to be accosted by the drug peddlers who had taken over the area.

Today, Lanark Park is bustling with family activity, a clean, green oasis where children can play in safety and neighbors can enjoy a picnic, read a book or sit and relax. Go there on a Saturday now and you will see children playing basketball in the Lanark Park Gym or playing softball on the grass--without fear or apprehension.

The struggle to transform Lanark Park is the courageous story of the people who live in that neighborhood acting in cooperation with their elected officials and government agencies. It was their determination to take back their park from the drug dealers and the gangs that has made Lanark Park a safe place and an ideal case study for the concept of community policing.

Lanark Park’s transformation didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen by accident.

As the councilwoman for the Lanark Park neighborhood, I am proud that I was a leader in the fight to take back the park. Together, my council office, the city attorney, the local police, the Recreation and Parks Department and most importantly the people of the neighborhood pooled our resources, our personal time and energy. We took up the battle and won.

Lanark Park may be a dramatic example--but it is by no means the only example--of members of a community reclaiming their streets and their lives in the West Valley.

Through my district office, I have initiated over 300 neighborhood, business and apartment watch groups. I have personally attended dozens of the grass-roots crime watch meetings. In short, I spend a lot of my time as councilwoman leading and organizing the fight against crime on a block-by-block, street-by-street basis.

Community-based policing is more than just the latest fashionable buzzword. It works because it empowers people and gives them a sense of control over their own lives and communities.

Does it work by itself? No. That’s why I have tried to be creative and proactive in proposing and supporting laws that would back up the fight against crime in our neighborhoods.

With that in mind, I have proposed and helped pass a tough anti-trespassing law to fight drugs, prostitution and gangs. I pushed hard for the ballot measure that increased 911 service and will create a new police communication center in the Valley. I sponsored the KYDS (Keep Youth Doing Something) Program for at-risk youth in the West Valley. Now, local businesses, police and community organizations work together to create recreational activities for children and teen-agers on weekends and after school.

Along with local school officials, I worked to set up the “get guns out of school” hot line. By calling a toll-free hot line, students now get rewards for reporting guns in their school to the police. It’s a common-sense approach that’s making our schools safer.

But the ultimate test of support for our citizens in their fight to take back their neighborhoods is support for Police Chief Willie Williams’ efforts to put more police on the street. Unlike my opponent, I supported Chief Williams’ position on Proposition 1, which would have put more police on the streets of the West Valley.

If we are serious about putting more police on the street, we need to stop talking and start acting. I successfully fought to take 600 trained officers from behind their desks and put them on the street at half the cost of hiring new officers!

No one needs to take a poll to know that the overriding issue for voters in the 3rd Council District is public safety. I am proud of my record in support of increasing police protection and fighting crime in the 3rd District. I’m also proud of my record of initiating crime prevention programs to get people involved in our mutual effort to increase safety in our community.

I urge the voters to examine my record and my commitment on this issue.

Joy Picus is running for reelection to the Los Angeles City Council in the June 8 runoff election.