RESEDA : Businesses Donate Equipment to Police

In what is believed to be the largest package of business support to a Los Angeles police station, three San Fernando Valley companies have donated more than $30,000 in equipment to the West Valley Division.

The contributions, announced Thursday in front of the station in Reseda, were in response to a call for donations by City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the West Valley.

“I am very, very excited . . . because this is, in my opinion, just the beginning of a huge tidal wave that I expect to be coming from the public, from private companies in our communities that are hearing my call that the LAPD very much needs all kind of support from the community,” said Chick, who has turned over $90,000 from her council office budget to the Police Department.

Great Western Bank donated 13 personal computers and six printers valued at more than $23,000; KHS Bikes and Challenge Publications contributed six high-performance mountain bikes worth $6,000, and Cablevision Industries provided two videotape players and a television valued at more than $1,000.

Division Capt. Valentino Paniccia said the computers and video equipment will help his officers do their jobs faster and better, and the bikes will allow him to create a police bicycle patrol.

Paniccia said the computers will enable officers to file reports faster, allowing them to get back on the streets quicker. “We can probably reduce at a very minimum 30% of our paperwork time for most of the complicated reports,” he said.

Before the donation of the TV and VCR, West Valley officers had to go to the Van Nuys station to view tapes of suspects caught in robberies or other crimes. “Having a detective drive to Van Nuys was sort of ludicrous,” Paniccia said. “Victims can also watch tapes right here and identify suspects. It makes it more efficient.”

The bicycle patrol will be used in graffiti surveillance, patrol of shopping malls during the holiday season, gang enforcement and dealing with other street crimes, Paniccia said.

Ian Campbell, senior vice president of Great Western, said he was stunned to learn about the lack of computer technology at the West Valley station.

“In the business community today, you take this kind of computer technology almost for granted,” Campbell said. “It seems to us that everyone in Los Angeles ought to be aware how strapped our Police Department is for these kinds of technologies that make for more efficient work.

“We were delighted to be able to step forward and make a gift . . . that helps the Police Department do its job more efficiently because if they are doing their job more efficiently, then we’re all safer.”