STUDIO CITY : Residents Praised for Helping Fight Crime

In his first meeting with the largest residents’ group in Studio City, the Valley’s new top cop lauded residents for helping to curb crime in the area in 1993 and urged them to work harder still in the coming year.

“You have had such a beneficial effect on the LAPD,” Deputy Police Chief Martin Pomeroy told more than 100 people at the meeting Tuesday of the Studio City Residents Assn. “Problems are not so overwhelming that we can’t join together and work on them.”

Pomeroy said serious crime was down 7% last year in LAPD’s North Hollywood Division--which includes Studio City--in part because of the help of watchful citizens. He pledged to continue and expand community based policing programs throughout the San Fernando Valley.

Pomeroy also predicted a continuing downward turn in crime as “many more officers will be in the field over the next few months.”

The residents association last month launched a “Partners Against Crime” program in which residents with walkie-talkies will conduct foot patrols and report suspicious activities to police. In return, police will provide crime updates at the association’s monthly meetings and material for its monthly newsletter.

During a question-and-answer session, one man asked whether reports of antiquated communications equipment and broken-down patrol cars plaguing the department are true.

“Police cars all throughout the city are in terrible condition,” the deputy chief said, adding that 350 new cruisers have been ordered and that he will fight to make sure the Valley get its fair share.

“It’s terrible now,” he said. “But soon it’s going to be all right.”