Cops on the Run : School Police Have Long Been Nomads--but That May Be Changing

Los Angeles school police officers assigned to the San Fernando Valley, West Los Angeles and Harbor areas are nomads.

They use their cars, local schools with understanding staffs, parking lots and even restaurants to conduct the normal business of campus policing.

Some change into their uniforms in their cars, others drive an hour to pick up a patrol car to begin their shifts.

But all that could change. Under a new effort to decentralize the Los Angeles Unified School District’s police department, three new offices are scheduled to open to alleviate the officers’ inconveniences and to bring services closer to the schools. The police finally could have a place to write reports and interview suspects and witnesses. And, they won’t have to drive Downtown to school district headquarters to complete paperwork or training sessions.

“We had officers dressing in their cars, holding briefings in the parking lot,” said Sgt. Randolph Glymph, who is assigned to the Valley. “We really need a place out here to conduct business. It would be a much more efficient way of dealing with the schools and taking care of business.”

The school police department’s efforts are twofold: first, to restructure operations from the Downtown district headquarters and second, to give officers and other police employees a more visible and more effective place to work.

“It makes no sense for a West L. A. officer or detective to drive Downtown and then turn around and go to West L. A.,” said school district Police Chief Wes Mitchell. “The officers also need a sense of connectedness. There is a real sense of loneliness out there--their bosses are 30 or 40 minutes away.”

Mitchell said he will submit a plan for the new offices to Supt. Sid Thompson and that the police department should have space by next year.

Additionally, he said the school police need a more visible presence throughout the school district. He said, for example, he would like to find space in the district’s Van Nuys regional office.

The police officers are constantly driving Downtown to the school district to submit reports and attend meetings. The sergeants and detectives are Downtown at least once a week, and usually more often, officials said.

In the Valley, the officers park their patrol cars at the district’s Sun Valley garage where the transportation department keeps school buses and a bungalow. The officers recently were granted permission to use the office for their morning roll call, but bus drivers and other transportation employees are sharing the same space.

“We’re only allowed to share it for those few minutes,” Glymph said. “Bus drivers are walking through, supervisors. There’s no locker room. It’s just not ours.”

The police department’s clerical staff who work for the Valley and other areas of the city all work out of the district’s offices at 450 N. Grand Ave.

In the West Side, the story is worse, police say. There, the district has no place to park school police cars and no office space at all. The officers, sergeants and detectives meet at schools and Downtown, and the Los Angeles Police Department sometimes loans the department some space.

In the Harbor area, the department has a small office where some police officers meet, but most say it is inconveniently located in the southern part of the district.

The police say they need central locations to meet suspects and witnesses and that they typically do not want to interview the students in LAPD stations. “That’s not always the environment we want to be in with these kids,” Mitchell said.

The school district is embarking on a massive restructuring effort, shifting from top-down decision-making. The school system will be reorganized into clusters and complexes of schools with reduced layers of district administration.

The police department’s efforts are in keeping with the overall district philosophy, officials said. “It’s definitely consistent with what we’re trying to do,” said Assistant Supt. Dan Isaacs, who oversees the district’s school operations division. “We’re all trying to bring services closer to the school sites.”

But while their efforts are similar, the problem is space. With more district departments branching out to schools, more district employees need office space closer to the campuses. Support services, for example, such as counselors and others, will need space as well, Isaacs said.

“We don’t have a lot of space, so this has to be handled carefully so we’re not stepping on each other’s toes,” Isaacs said.

FYI

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s police department has two bureaus that cover most of the city. The plan to open three new offices would draw officers and other employees from those bureaus. The Valley bureau has one assistant chief, one lieutenant, nine sergeants, five detectives, 116 officers--of whom 76 are assigned to schools and 40 are on patrol--five plant security aides and two clerical workers. The Southeast bureau has one assistant chief, one lieutenant, nine sergeants, five detectives, 117 officers--including 74 assigned to schools and 44 on patrol--13 plant security aides and two clerical workers.

Source: Los Angeles Unified School District