Police Station On Wheels Gets Funding

Law enforcement: LAPD receives $95,000 in federal money for special project to help patrol crime-infested areas.

The Los Angeles Police Department has received a $95,000 federal grant to help pay for a mobile police station to operate out of the Wilshire Division.

Officials said that the station will cruise the entire division, but heavy emphasis will be placed on patrolling neighborhoods in Koreatown, where during the past year residents and business owners have become increasingly vocal about crime.

“Something should have been done a long time ago. Nevertheless, we think the mobile unit is a great idea,” said business owner Yohngsohk Choe, an anti-crime activist and member of the Wilshire Division Community Police Council. “We need all the assistance we can get.”

The Wilshire Division, which patrols part of Koreatown and portions of the Mid-City and Southwest areas, is the most violent of the four precincts in the department’s West Bureau.

In 1993, the division logged 77 homicides, 132 rapes, 3,856 robberies and 2,864 assaults, according to department data.

Police said the mobile station will help the department reach out to the division’s heavily immigrant residents, many of whom are afraid or unable to travel to the Wilshire station.

“It’s going to create a lot more interaction with the community,” said Sgt. Frank Hurtado, who coordinates the station’s lead officers involved in community-based policing. “This will be a welcome addition in Wilshire.”

Choe agreed. “Residents will have access to cops right in the problem areas,” he said. “It’s what community policing is all about.”

Hurtado said the station will be a mobile home outfitted with department computers and telecommunications equipment. It will also have a small holding room where suspects can be processed.

The federal grant is part of the U.S. Justice Department’s Community Projects for Restoration Program and will be augmented by a $20,000 from the city.

The federal grant was announced last week by U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

“Crime in Los Angeles is simply out of hand,” Feinstein said in a written statement. “This mobile unit will be the fourth of its kind, working out of the Wilshire area community police station and focusing on the Koreatown community.”