NEIGHBORHOODS : Deputies Crack Down on Cleaning Up

Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Mike Pippin called it the neighborhood Addams Family home.

It had six abandoned cars and overgrown grass in front, a swamp-like swimming pool in back, no carpeting and a non-functioning toilet. The residence on Honeysuckle Lane in unincorporated South Whittier was “horrible,” he said.

It was among dozens of houses and apartments in unincorporated areas near Whittier that Pippin and two other deputies have been inspecting for violations of health, building and safety codes.

The deputies have been assigned to the department’s new Community-Oriented Problem Solving Team (COPS) to try to improve living conditions for the estimated 110,000 people in unincorporated areas east and south of Whittier.

“County services have been minimal here for the last 10 to 20 years,” Pippin said. “A broken window can lead to more broken windows, tagging and overall blighted conditions. It causes property values to go down and it leads to gang members and drug dealers coming in. They don’t deal out of the $300,000 to $400,000 homes.”

The deputies told the owners of the Honeysuckle Lane home that they had three weeks to correct the violations or face misdemeanor charges that could result in fines or jail time. Pippin emphasized, however, that the team’s main objective is to have residents fix up their properties. “We want compliance,” he said. “We aren’t looking to take people to jail.”

The deputies have issued dozens of citations to owners of houses and apartments since being assigned to the team in early March.

They found a 54-unit apartment building on Norwalk Boulevard with gaping holes in its ceilings. Occupants had been without hot water for weeks, Pippin said. Rats and cockroaches scurried around the area.

The owners were given 21 days to correct the violations. County health officials will accompany the deputies on reinspections, Pippin said.

A partner of RTI Properties, a Gardena-based firm that manages the building, said the deputies’ description of the conditions was exaggerated. “We had a water heater go out for two weekends, not for weeks,” said the partner, who refused to give his name. “And we have regular pest spraying every month. Any problems we have, we take care of. We do not run a slum of any sort.”

The team has also checked on homes that are suspected sites of drug trafficking, served search warrants, rousted illegal sidewalk vendors selling food items and have made arrests for a variety of illegal activities.

The deputies discovered that a yard sale was featuring stolen power tools and generators. The people who were selling the items were arrested and more than $30,000 in equipment was confiscated.

On another occasion the three deputies checked a home known for narcotics trafficking and detained a man whom they learned later was wanted for 15 armed robberies.

The unit is patterned after a Sheriff’s Department task force in East Los Angeles that concentrates on such community problems as substandard residences, gang activity, drug dealing and illegal vendors. In addition to Pippin, deputies Victor Ibarra and Tom Ctibor are assigned to the team. Officials plan to add two more deputies.

The Norwalk Sheriff’s Station, which covers South Whittier, has urged County Supervisors Gloria Molina and Deane Dana to use $115,700 of their discretionary budgets to fund COPS for a six-month trial period. So far, the team has been funded by stations in Norwalk and Pico Rivera, which provide the deputies.

Martha Gurian, 29, who lives near the Honeysuckle Lane home that the team has cited, praised the effort. “I think (what the deputies are doing) is great,” she said. “I don’t like looking across the street and seeing junk staring at me in the face.”