SUNLAND : Police Vow to Patrol Tujunga Wash Ponds

The Los Angeles Police Department vowed Monday to improve patrols of the Tujunga Ponds, two watering holes in the Tujunga Wash that have become polluted by litter and are frequented by transients.

The promise came as a City Council panel on public safety discussed complaints from nearby residents who say that neither police nor Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies are patrolling the ponds.

The ponds are within unincorporated county land, which in most cases is patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department. But they are surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, which is the jurisdiction of the LAPD.

Arlene DeSanctis, chief field deputy for Councilman Joel Wachs, said residents have complained that when they call about transients and other problems at the ponds, both the police and the Sheriff’s Department claim they do not have jurisdiction over the area.

“It has been an ongoing problem,” she told the panel.

But police officials from the LAPD’s Foothill Division said the ponds are part of their jurisdiction and they plan on making that clear to all police dispatchers and other officers who may get calls about the ponds.

“We will fix it,” said LAPD Capt. Robert Gale. “We will take care of that problem.”