Panel Agrees to Keep West Valley Jail Open : Police: Commission bows to vocal protests from local residents. Three other lockups will close.

Bowing to vocal opposition from local residents, the Los Angeles Police Commission voted Tuesday evening to keep open a jail at the West Valley Police Station but approved a proposal to close lockups at three other stations.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams’ controversial Jail Consolidation Plan, which police officials said would streamline and improve the jail system and place more patrol officers on the streets, had called for closure of jails in the West Valley in Reseda as well as in North Hollywood and West and South Los Angeles.

But at a rare meeting of the commission in the San Fernando Valley--which also featured a vocal show of force by police officers angry over long-stalled contract talks--an overflow audience at Parkman Junior High School made it clear that they thought the jail closure would make their neighborhoods less safe.

“This program to close the jail is absolutely, positively ludicrous,” said Marvin Byron, a Sherman Oaks-based member of the Police Department’s Neighborhood Watch program, to a chorus of applause and cheers. “You cannot, you should not take (police) cars out of an area.”

Byron and a host of other residents lined up one by one to tick off a list of complaints before the members of the Police Commission, who were making their first appearance in the Valley in almost two years.

The residents seemed united in their message: Closure of the jail in Reseda would force officers from the West Valley to drive to a Van Nuys police lockup more than seven miles away to book arrestees. The extra time driving and standing in line with officers from other divisions, they said, would take away precious patrol resources in their communities.

One of the more prominent, and vocal, opponents was Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the West Valley. She said her staff did its own study, and that the results conflicted with recent police reports that found that the closure of the West Valley jail would actually free up more officers.

“I’ve come to the very firm conclusion that shutting down the West Valley jail will adversely affect police services in the Valley,” Chick said. Noting that the Police Department’s West Valley Division alone covers 56 square miles, about the size of the city of Oakland, she said: “It would be the same as asking Oakland police officers to drive to San Francisco to book prisoners. It just doesn’t make sense.”

After hearing the public comments and finding that not one speaker supported the jail closure, Police Commissioner Herbert F. Boeckmann--a Valley resident--recommended sparing the West Valley jail while the commission monitors the effects of closing the other three lockups. His motion was passed unanimously.

Afterward, Chief Williams, who sat on a podium with the commissioners, said flatly: “The decision has been made. We will move forward with that decision, and we won’t have any problems at all.”

The proposal was prompted by Williams’ concerns that there was no uniform way of operating the jails, which has made it necessary for many patrol officers to fill in at positions usually filled by non-sworn but specially trained jailers.

Many police officers, including some attending the Tuesday night meeting, complained that it would result in fewer officers on patrol and longer response times to emergency calls.

But Bill Russell, administrator of the Police Department’s Support Services Bureau, which oversees all jail and custody issues, said Tuesday the plan actually will bolster police services in the Valley by allowing officers to concentrate on patrol duties and leave jail responsibilities to specially trained jail guards.

“In the long run, we expect it to be a boon,” Russell said. “We don’t expect it to increase response time. If there were a problem, we would take some measure to correct it, but I don’t see that happening at all. The net effect will be to free up officers.”

The 77th Street police lockup in South Los Angeles was targeted to close anyway as part of a plan to build a new station. And the timeworn North Hollywood station also will make way for a new station in the near future, which had been planned to be without jail facilities anyway, police said.

The contentious tenor of the commission meeting was set even before it began.

Outside the auditorium, several dozen sign-carrying police officers and family members picketed along De Soto Avenue, loudly chanting “We want a contract!” as hundreds of residents filed in.

During the meeting, two leaders of the police union were given an opportunity to air their views as their supporters stood in the back of the auditorium. They exhorted the commission to take an active role in the long-stalled contract negotiations.

Last week, the officers, who have been working without a contract for nearly two years, voted overwhelmingly to reject a proposal offered by the City Council. Union leaders said Tuesday night that the rank and file are ready to wait until they get a contract they believe is just.

“As chief negotiator, I’m going to stand my ground and make sure we squeeze that carrot they put out in front of us for every drop of juice we can get,” said Bill Harkness, an officer and chief negotiator for the police union on the contract issue, to loud applause from officers and residents in the audience.

Dennis Zine, a police sergeant who is a director of the Police Protective League, expressed a more militant role now being taken by police.

“You have a keg of dynamite ready to explode in this city,” he said, “and it is up to you to take some action on this issue.”

From the crowd, one resident shouted, “Give them what they want!”

Officials in the Police Commission and Police Department said the “traveling” meeting was symbolically significant because it was being done to show how important the Valley is to the law enforcement establishment in the city. It also shows how serious the police are about promoting community-based policing, which relies heavily on grass-roots input, particularly on such nettlesome issues as jail closings.

“We are working under a microscope, and the community is going to raise concerns, which is fine,” said Russell.

“But it is important for us to get out to the Valley and make our case to the citizens directly, to answer their questions,” Russell said. “That’s why the commission is holding these meetings on a decentralized basis, to increase the contact between the community, the commission and the department as a whole, so more citizens can have insight into how the department works.”

After the meeting, however, one critic of the jail closure plan suggested that the West Valley jail remains open because local residents had a forum in which to express their views--unlike the residents of North Hollywood, West Los Angeles and those near the 77th Street station.

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