Granada Hills Not Just a Beat for This Officer

He’s far from being Granada Hills’ typical Citizen of the Year. For one thing, Rick Gibby doesn’t live in Granada Hills.

For another, he didn’t receive the Chamber of Commerce’s highest award for being a philanthropic businessman or saving a beloved park from condominium developers.

He got it for being a good cop.

“The fact that I was recognized as a part of the community even though I don’t live in the community meant a lot to me,” said the Santa Clarita resident, who has worked in Granada Hills for five years. “People don’t call me Officer Gibby anymore, they call me Rick.”

The 22-year Los Angeles Police Department veteran is a senior lead officer at the Devonshire Division and, in the words of one local activist, “is like the father of community policing in the San Fernando Valley.”

According to Becky Lohnes Leveque, chairwoman of Operation PROTECT (Porter Ranch Organized to Eliminate Crime Together), the Devonshire district has become a model for community policing--due in large part to the efforts of Gibby, 44.

“He truly cares about the people he serves,” Leveque said.

Gibby is the creator of a number of innovative, community-based policing programs, said attorney John Weitkamp, who serves as the chamber’s legal counsel.

He began an early version of Operation Sparkle, which brings residents together to clean up their streets and stores, removing graffiti and clearing brush. He spearheaded a volunteer surveillance team, which has helped make more than 100 arrests in a couple of years, and developed a popular business watch program.

Another of his community-based programs helped reduce crime by 60% in one area.

And many of those programs are now employed throughout the Valley, city and even throughout the country, Weitkamp said.

For Gibby, if “community policing” is the latest in a confusing line of official catch-phrases, its meaning is simple: “Narrowing the gap between the Police Department and the community. “We’re taking on problems together,” he said.

According to residents, however, Gibby spends more personal time taking on those problems than most people who call the area home.

Both Leveque and Weitkamp told of one instance when Gibby, on his way home from work, spotted a broken window at a business. Instead of calling his station to report the damage, he climbed through the broken glass, picked up the telephone and called the owner, waiting there until the owner arrived.

Although he calls the Devonshire Division his “second home,” Gibby admitted that “my wife would probably tell you it’s my first home.”

Besides the fact that he is the first non-resident to receive the honor and the first police officer, being Citizen of the Year for 1994 was especially poignant for Gibby, he said. The award was named for longtime community supporter Gil Benjamin, who died last year, and to whom Gibby has dedicated the remainder of his law enforcement career.

Although he’s served at several stations throughout the city, Gibby said that whether he lives there or not, he plans to spend his last three years before retirement at the Devonshire Division. In fact, he insists on it.

“I will spend it there, or I won’t be sticking around.”