The Neighborhood Beat : Garden Grove Community Policing Program Stresses Prevention Over Arrests

Officer Mark Elizondo peered into the green, swamp-like water of an apartment complex swimming pool on Stuart Drive that had become an unlikely home for three mallards.

*

“The Loch Ness monster could live in there for all we know,” Elizondo said, shaking his head in disgust at the stagnant water. “The ducks think it’s a pond.”

As he does with just about everything else that goes on in the neighborhood, Elizondo is involved in efforts to get the landlord to clean the pool.

It’s not normally the role of the police, Elizondo said, as he continued his foot patrol of the three-block neighborhood, “but we are trying to keep this place clean. A neighborhood that’s not well-kept is going to attract undesirables.”

Elizondo, who has been freed of all other duty, is assigned exclusively to the neighborhood as the department moves toward community policing, a concept that makes officers responsible for a small geographic area, where they can concentrate on the needs of residents, address the causes of crime and fear and build a partnership with the community. The philosophy emphasizes crime prevention over arrests.

“Community Policing: Garden Grove Style” was launched as a pilot project in January, 1993, in the city’s Palma Vista neighborhood and is gradually being expanded to include other troubled neighborhoods.

“We have officers working beats who are making differences in neighborhoods with little more than the community policing philosophy behind them,” said Lt. Scott Hamilton.

By July, the department hopes to have three full-time community policing teams--with two officers each--working in two other yet-to-be-named neighborhoods.

*

The community policing drive received a boost last December when Garden Grove was among the 74 cities nationwide awarded federal grants to hire additional police officers. The city is using its $593,533 to hire six officers.

Elizondo, 30, will work in the Stuart Drive neighborhood for at least 18 months. Assigned there six weeks ago, largely because he is able to speak Spanish in a neighborhood where 82% of the residents are Latino, he has become, in effect, a manager of the community. Elizondo, an eight-year veteran, knows many residents by name and has organized activities such as a neighborhood cleanup day--which drew more than 300 volunteers, a Girl Scout troop and a job fair for residents, which takes place Saturday.

“I’m behind him 100%,” said Isaac Thomas, who has lived in the neighborhood for 18 years. “I’ve never had a bad feeling about police, but I only used to see them when they were driving around, giving tickets or arresting somebody. (Elizondo) is getting to know people in the neighborhood and getting to know what they are about.”

The high-density Stuart Drive neighborhood, with its 51 apartment buildings on about 12 acres, was built more than 30 years ago. In recent years, it has become increasingly plagued by drugs and crime.

The community policing effort began here in November with the police department setting up shop in a studio apartment in the heart of the neighborhood. It gives the local team an operating base and residents a local place where they can contact the police department.

A random sampling of residents finds some who say they have already noticed a reduction in crime and noise, and a better overall appearance of the area.

“Before they started patrolling, it was getting kind of rough with drug deals and wanna-be gang members,” said Thomas, 41. “There’s still some stuff going on but they have slowed it down a bit.”

Mae Chandler, 77, said she had become afraid to leave her apartment after dark but now feels somewhat safer.

“Our neighborhood needed it badly,” she said. “The officers have been a good addition to our street and I appreciate it very much.”

Chandler, a 17-year resident of Stuart Drive, said she was initially taken aback to see police officers wearing a uniform of jeans, polo shirts and tennis shoes.

“When they first came here, I looked at them kind of funny when I saw them in blue jeans,” Chandler said, chuckling. “But, by golly, they have the right to be comfortable.”

The casual look is unusual, but, Elizondo said, “I think people find it much less intimidating.”

Developing a rapport and trust takes time, he said. He feels he made a breakthrough last month when he and his former partner, Anthony Albini, held the cleanup day, which included a barbecue.

*

“I think that was the first time they saw officers in a different light,” Elizondo said. “We were out there working without our uniforms. I think it showed the people that we were sincere in our efforts.”

Elizondo is working with other city departments, such as code enforcement and community development, and has also contacted the area’s 27 individual landlords seeking their cooperation.

Long-range plans for the neighborhood--near Garden Grove Boulevard and Newhope Street--include the construction of enclosures for unsightly trash receptacles, lighting of alleys, transforming garages into carports and possibly building a neighborhood park.

“We are going to stay here until we feel this is a nice, livable place,” Elizondo said. “When the area can maintain itself and function like any other neighborhood, then, we’ll leave.”

As part of the citywide switch in policing philosophy, Lt. Hamilton said the department’s 175 sworn officers are not only encouraged to get more involved with residents on their beats, but they are required to turn in a monthly report outlining what community-policing activities or problem solving they have done.

“There are some people here who are obviously more involved than others, whether it’s personality or talent,” Hamilton said. “But I haven’t noticed any real resistance. I think officers on patrol are buying into it real well.”

The department is proud of the results of the community policing effort so far.

No figures are yet available for accomplishments in Stuart Drive. But during the five months in 1993--January to May--when the program was tried in the Palma Vista neighborhood, police reported a reduction in car break-ins, fights, graffiti and vandalism. In a survey conducted in May, 1993, 40% of the residents said they felt safe in the neighborhood compared to 23% in January of that year.

Another example of improvements from the approach, say police, is the work of Officer Todd Elgin, who is credited with making vast improvements in his patrol area, the Yucca-Sage neighborhood near Harbor Boulevard and Chapman Avenue. Hamilton cites it as an example of how adopting community policing can help even when an officer is not relieved of his other duties.

Elgin organized a cleanup day and barbecue and arranged for a Santa Claus to visit at Christmas with gifts for underprivileged children in the neighborhood.

“For the most part, we have gone out and put Band-Aids on situations and drive away,” Elgin said. “Within days or even within hours, the situation would recur. Now, we are looking for ways to solve the problems.”