NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Police Commend Residents for Successful Partnership

Celebrating the success of the North Hollywood Division’s Police Assisted Surveillance Team, Los Angeles police and City Council representatives Monday presented commendations to residents and local businesses for their roles in what one councilman said should be a model for the nation.

More than 40 community members, including about 15 uniformed officers, attended the morning ceremony.

“Modern law enforcement is best, not as a unilateral force,” said Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy, “but as a partnership between police and their communities.”

The team, known as PAST, which Capt. Robert McNamara calls the eyes and ears of the force, assists the Los Angeles Police Department in what police call a tangible example of community-based policing.

PAST members monitor, for example, shopping center parking lots during the holiday season, reporting all suspicious activity to police officers stationed nearby.

Councilman Richard Alarcon touted PAST as “a model program for the whole country.”

State-of-the-art radio equipment, including 10 walkie-talkie radios and an antenna that has been installed on top of the Universal City Texaco building, will allow community volunteers to communicate with North Hollywood police “from Studio City to Sun Valley,” police said.

To inaugurate the equipment, each councilman attending the presentation--Alarcon, President John Ferraro and Joel Wachs--attempted to radio officers stationed at three locations in the East Valley.

After Ferraro and Wachs had difficulty operating the equipment, Alarcon received wild applause when the officer he called came in loud and clear with “It’s a bit nippy out here at Sunland (Boulevard) and the Golden State (Freeway), councilman.”

Judy Corbett, one of several residents commended Monday, gave the group a donation check and said “perhaps this money can be used to train the councilmen (to use the radios).”

The group has raised more than $10,000 in the last year by sponsoring such fund-raising activities as garage sales, T-shirt sales, corporate donations and Hug-a-Cop, which raised nearly $1,500 when people paid $1 for hugs from North Hollywood officers.

Wachs said crime is down in the Valley because of the commendable relationship between police and community members. “Government can provide the facilities and the resources, but we can’t replace the responsibility of the community,” he said.