Police Increase Presence at Parks : Law enforcement: Bike patrols and other strategies aim to keep recreation centers, including five in the Valley, safe and calm in the summer.

Guero, Chueco and half a dozen other park regulars stared insolently into the windows of the black-and-white LAPD cruiser, then slunk away, glancing over their shoulders as they rounded the corner of Vineland Avenue.

Prudent move, leaving.

“They were probably dirty, holding narcotics or an open (alcohol) container, and they didn’t want the hassle,” Sgt. Ike Langsam said, his voice weary, courtesy of 30 years on the beat.

And so, on this recent hot afternoon, the gangbangers came to Sun Valley Park and Recreation Center, shot a few hoops and left without bothering anyone.

What a difference a little police presence makes.

Langsam oversees the North Hollywood Division’s three bicycle patrol officers, who have been credited with making the once crime-ridden park safe again. They work out of a substation provided by the Chamber of Commerce, and patrol on donated trail bikes--the program doesn’t cost a dime.

Last week, the Los Angeles City Council gave its official stamp of approval to the bike patrols by unanimously adopting the Summer Safe Parks Program. Now in its third year, the program beefs up police patrols at 17 city parks, including Sun Valley, that previously have been trouble spots.

The council’s move was a rubber-stamp action at a time when park safety is a mounting concern.

Another effort to assure safety in parks--a proposal to ban gang members--has run into legal snags, with police officials pronouncing it unconstitutional or unenforceable. A task force has been formed to study park safety and other options.

Councilman Hal Bernson, a tough talker on park safety, applauds the beefed-up police presence, but says more should be done to make parks safe, according to Greig Smith, his chief of staff. Although Bernson was out of town and couldn’t be reached, Smith said the LAPD is being “overcautious” by opposing the gang ban, to the detriment of law-abiding citizens who want to use their parks.

“It’s just an issue we repeatedly hear, the cry from people in the constituencies who live in the neighborhoods,” Smith said. “The gangs have particularly taken over the big parks. They are scaring people. They are using brute force to steal and rob and inflict damage.

“These parks belong to the people, not the gangs,” he said.

Smith added that Bernson and others would like to give the beat officers more authority to determine who gets rousted from the parks, and who stays. Meanwhile, he said, “we’re going to give this idea they’ve got a try.”

He fears that cleaning up just 17 parks will only “move problems from one place to another.”

But other officials say bans, crackdowns and sweeps aren’t the answer.

“Parks are for people,” said Dick Ginevan, chief parks supervisor for the San Fernando Valley. “Our parks reflect the neighborhoods that they’re in. We don’t want to discriminate against anyone.”

He added that city parks are much safer than the streets and neighborhoods around them. “A lot of what takes place is perception. Our crime rate in the parks is much lower than it is on the streets. But when something happens at a particular recreation center, the name of that center is picked up by the media.”

If Sun Valley Park is a park-safety petri dish, the experiment seems to be working.

At what once was one of the area’s most crime-infested parks, men slept under the searing sun, hats shading their faces. Families and factory workers spread out lunches. A panting black puppy nosed at a trash can. The block-square park was lazy and dull--just the way Langsam and bicycle patrol officers Martin Baeza and Alice Andrade like it.

“They’ve given the park back to the people,” said Park Director Tom Hutchison, who calls the North Hollywood Division foot beats and bicycle patrols “the best thing that ever happened to the LAPD.”

Just a few years ago, junkies, gangs and drunks ruled this littered patch of earth bordered by Vineland and Fair avenues and Lorne and Cantara streets.

Spend five minutes talking about the park with any officer from the North Hollywood Division and you will learn that two years ago Tina Kerbrat, a 34-year-old rookie cop and mother of two, was fatally shot in the face across the street by a man who had been drinking in the park. Kerbrat was the city’s first female officer slain in the line of duty.

Baeza and Andrade pedal by the slaying scene several times each day. But they feel safe now--and apparently so do others.

Before the bike patrols began, baseball was the only community program offered, Hutchison said. Families avoided the park like the plague it had become. But now, there are aerobics classes, basketball leagues, and classes in English as a second language.

This summer, Sun Valley Park and four others in the San Fernando Valley are among the 17 parks included in the Summer Safe Parks Program.

Under the program, police and parks officials work closely to identify troublemakers and keep parks quiet during their busiest season. The LAPD is informed in advance when special events are likely to draw crowds, Lt. Dan Koenig said, so additional officers can patrol.

“A lot of times just having a police car or uniformed police officers in the area has a very healthy effect on keeping a place friendly and preventing crimes,” Koenig said.

Other Valley parks included in the Summer Safe Parks Program are Van Nuys Recreation Center, 14301 Vanowen Ave.; Lanark Recreation Center, 21816 Lanark St.; Humphrey Recreation Center, 12560 Fillmore St., and Winnetka Recreation Center, 8401 Winnetka St.