O.C. Buyers Beware: Mall Crime on Rise

With the holidays fast approaching, Margie Todd’s thoughts have turned to gift giving. But the Westminster resident still tries to keep an eye out for trouble when she visits nearby shopping malls.

“You’ve got to be very aware of who’s next to you these days,” said Smith, who shops--during daylight hours only--at Huntington Beach Mall and, occasionally, Westminster Mall. “It’s sad, but that’s the way it is nowadays. I won’t go to the mall by myself at night.”

A better-safe-than-sorry attitude may be out of sync with the Yuletide spirit, but police officials advise consumers to take added precautions as they rush to complete holiday shopping.

Precise statistics on crime at the nation’s shopping malls do not exist, but anecdotal evidence gathered by the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York suggests that crime is increasing at 1,800 malls operated by its members. And, not surprisingly, Southern California malls have not escaped the violence.

“It’s really unfortunate, but you can’t be as relaxed as you once could,” said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Luis Ochoa, who oversees a police substation that will open Dec. 9 at Huntington Beach Mall, near the main entrance. “You’ve got to be aware of where you are, pay attention to who’s around you.”

Increasingly, there is reason to be concerned.

Last week, Los Angeles County sheriff’s teams evacuated the Valencia Town Center Mall as they searched for gunmen who robbed a jewelry store. In July, a 13-year-old Westminster girl was shot in the Westminster Mall. All told, at least a dozen violent outbursts have erupted at Southern California malls in recent years.

Police and mall operators link the heightened crime to the mall’s increasing popularity as a gathering place.

“Shopping center operators have for years wanted to become the Main Street of America,” said Judy Lapin, a Long Beach-based consultant who advises shopping centers on crisis response strategies. “Well, now they have it . . . and they have to live with it. They’re not removed from crime that’s just about everywhere else in society.”

Just as thieves lurk in the shadows near automated teller machines and at the entrances of neighborhood convenience stores, criminals increasingly view malls--particularly their parking lots--as a stalking ground for shoppers loaded down with cash and merchandise.

Aware that media reports on violent crime can shatter a mall’s reputation, shopping center operators are beefing up their security forces, adding high-tech surveillance gear and inviting police departments to set up shop in highly visible storefronts.

“The days of hiring a night watchman and making him the security director are gone,” said Anna Northcutt, a former FBI agent who directs security operations at 45 malls operated by San Diego-based Hahn Co., including Los Cerritos Center, Plaza Pasadena and The Oaks in Thousand Oaks.

Northcutt recently helped organize a two-day security conference in Atlanta that featured the latest in surveillance and security technology. More important, participants heard tips from the director of security for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, big-city police officers and the heads of security forces that protect visitors at some of the nation’s premiere universities, industrial companies and cultural institutions.

“This has been a learning process for cities and malls,” Northcutt said. “When the first malls opened, crime wasn’t the concern it is today. Police didn’t come on property. But now, malls are the town center and this is where police belong.”

That’s in stark contrast to a decade ago, when many malls turned security matters over to poorly trained personnel. Back then, mall operators preferred that security personnel remain undercover and in the background.

“Five years ago, if shoppers saw a uniformed policeman, they said, ‘Oh, my God, what happened?’ ” said Leeza Hoyt, whose Torrance-based crisis management firm has helped mall managers cope with the aftermath of riots, gang-related murders and child abductions. “Now,” Hoyt said, “shoppers see the uniform and it makes them comfortable.”

Malls that once frowned upon highly visible, uniformed police officers now provide storefronts for police departments to establish substations.

While crime-weary Southern Californians might suspect that the substations are unique to this region, the mini-stations have opened up in suburban malls in Harrisburg, Pa.; Pembroke Pines, Fla.; Concord, N.H.; Southfield, Mich., and Houston.

The substations correspond to a nationwide trend toward community-based policing, a crime-prevention strategy that calls for uniformed officers to make themselves visible in the community.

Police traditionally had ventured into malls only on an “as-needed basis,” said Santa Ana Police Lt. Dave Nick, who commands the district that includes MainPlace Santa Ana. But as calls increased, police officials recognized that it made economic sense to station officers in shopping areas.

MainPlace generates about 8% of police calls in the city’s northeast district, which “easily justified” the permanent assignment of two officers, Nicks said. That immediate police presence means “we’ve had great success in catching people after crimes,” Nick said, “because we’re there and our response time is super.”

Just as important, Nick said, officers “are encouraged to walk a foot beat. . . . It’s not unlike Santa Ana’s downtown business district, where we’re supporting the business community.”

Beginning on Friday, Santa Ana’s mounted police officers will begin patrolling the MainPlace shopping center’s parking lot.

Although some shoppers might reject police presence in malls as overbearing and unnecessary, Nick described it as “healthy . . . we haven’t had any backlash as far as the mall management saying our presence is too much. . . . If anything, they like it, the merchants like it. And if it was driving customers away, we’d hear about it.”

“It’s a balancing act,” he said. “You can’t have too much of a presence, but you do need a presence.”

By far, most of the substation’s time is spent on processing shoplifters apprehended by store security. “That’s our primary purpose,” said Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Bob Durham, who supervises a station at South Coast Plaza. “We’re not responding to family fights and drunk drivers . . . but when we’re not (dealing with shoplifters) we’re protecting the parking lot and the mall’s interior.”

Costa Mesa has five police officers assigned to South Coast Plaza on a regular basis, Durham said. Reserve officers and a bike detail are added during the holiday shopping season.

Police decided to open a storefront at Huntington Beach Mall to “establish our presence so (potential criminals) would be aware that we were there,” Lt. Ochoa said. “That’s the day and age we live in: No matter where you are, the best way to be proactive is to create a police presence.”

“When it comes to security, I really don’t have secrets,” said Della Chadwell, general manager of Huntington Beach Mall. “We do add (security) people during the holiday season. We increase their visibility . . . because our customers appreciate seeing (uniformed) personnel.”

Huntington Beach Mall is using increased manpower and state-of-the-art technology to safeguard shoppers.

During the holiday season, city police patrol the parking lot on bicycles, along with private security guards. Mall owner MaceRich Co. of Santa Monica also installed a sophisticated video and audio security system in Huntington Beach. Similar systems are being added to the company’s Lakewood Center Mall in Lakewood and Panorama Mall in the San Fernando Valley.

But instead of hiding its television monitors in a back room, MaceRich security personnel operate the system from a highly visible kiosk in the center of the mall’s common area--a move designed to further deter would-be criminals.

Shoppers have endured their share of car thefts and break-ins in Huntington Beach, but the mall has escaped the major incidents--shootings, knifings and the like--that have bedeviled other shopping centers and downtown shopping districts. “We decided to do something proactive rather than wait for something to happen,” Chadwell said.

In the northern part of the county, Brea Mall General Manager Jim Charter said, “Making people feel safe and secure is my job.” So, as holiday shopping hours increase, along with the number of customers, Brea will increase private security. And, the Brea Police Department, which has one officer at the mall, will add a second officer during the holiday season.

There is a twofold message behind the uniformed show of force: “We want shoppers to know that we have security,” Northcutt said. “But we also want the criminal to know so he’ll see the security and go somewhere else.”

“South Coast Plaza is very good when it comes to visibility,” according to Durham. “There are enough security guards that you should be able to stand just about anywhere in the mall and look in either direction and see at least two security officers.

“We’re there mostly to be visible,” Durham said. “The message is, ‘If you do something, you’re going to get caught.’ ”

The police presence works, said Nick in Santa Ana: “Many crooks are sophisticated enough to know malls that have officers assigned, and they’ll avoid that mall.”

Malls that have escaped gang shootings and other tragedies can’t turn a blind eye to security, said X.S. Alexander, general manager of Mall of Orange.

“No matter where they are, malls have to take the same precautions,” he said. “What happens in one mall in Orange County could conceivably happen anywhere else in the county so it’s important to always be prepared.”

Malls “are a popular place for everyone, and that includes people in gangs and criminals who would like to take advantage,” Alexander said.

There are no communities where the malls are a separated, protected environment, separate from the city it’s in. “If anything,” Alexander said, “malls are a reflection of the city they’re in.”

* HAPPY HUNTING: A holiday shopping guide for O.C. bargain hunters. B2-B3