Informed Opinions on Today’s Topics : Do Barricades Obstruct the Drug Traffic?

After the installation of traffic barricades at several San Fernando Valley streets in the 1980s, residents hailed the barriers as a cure for the drive-through drug sales that had plagued their neighborhoods for years. Law-enforcement experts believed the concrete-and-steel barricades would reduce trafficking by limiting street access with a series of confusing cul-de-sacs. Now, after years of continuing drug activity and arrests, some residents of a barricaded North Hills neighborhood want the barriers removed, saying they are inadequate and have even become tools of the dealers.

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Are street barricades effective in reducing drug-related crime?

Richard Alarcon, Los Angeles City Council member whose district includes the barricaded North Hills neighborhood:

“Barricades are not to be used as a long-term solution. They are an investment of energy to organize the community to establish a crime-fighting network within the area while they are present. They should be used inlimited ways in specific communities and only when there are resources to organize the community prior to the placement of the barricades.”

Albert Melena, neighborhood specialist for the San Fernando Valley Partnership, a substance-abuse prevention group:

“It hasn’t really stopped the drug dealers. It has stopped a lot of the vehicle traffic. A barricade is like a tourniquet. If you don’t treat the injury, you can lose the limb. A barricade is not really dealing with the problem, it’s isolating the problem.”

Vance Proctor, commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division, which polices North Hills:

“They are effective in reducing the drive-through, vehicular type of drug traffic. Do they stop all drug trafficking or drug sales? No, they don’t. I think some people think it will be a cure-all. In reality, there is no single thing that is the solution to any of our crime problems.”

Paula Rangel, resident manager of a 69-unit apartment building on Parthenia Street and a community representative for Neighborhood Watch:

“No. They are not. All it’s doing is producing younger and younger homeboys. It’s not making it any better. It’s making it worse. It has made it worse. They make families feel like they are animals that don’t count. It will never, never work. These are the gangs’ clubhouses now. It’s not deterring crime.”

George Aliano, commanding officer in charge of narcotics for the LAPD’s Valley bureaus:

“They were effective when they started, like on Blythe Street. Then they weren’t. It became a little fortress for the gangs. I would say it works in some places, but it makes it difficult for us to get people. It’s hard for us to cover people in there. They can create a trap. If you move the barricade, you’ll just move the problem. Most people don’t care just as long as it’s moved away from them. I would say for us, in enforcement, it’s probably a hindrance.”

Joe Rodriguez, owner of a 47-unit apartment building on Orion Avenue:

“Both times they put up the barricades, it was a different world. The streets were very calm. It was a safe location. And the minute they took the barricades away, it returned to what it was.”

Joseph Carlin, neighborhood specialist for the San Fernando Valley Partnership:

“No. I think it’s a bad idea. Barricades are a Band-Aid solution. As far as I’m concerned, there is no logic in putting a barricade on any street.”