Pace of Police Reform

I take exception to your Dec. 5 editorial criticizing the pace of reform in the Los Angeles Police Department. I have been a Los Angeles police officer for 22 years and am currently assigned to the West Valley Area Community Relations Office.

I can speak from personal experience of the changes that are taking place. When I began my career, citizen involvement was minimal and frankly was not wanted or solicited. Today, however, the department actively pursues citizen involvement. I personally oversee a group of 60 dedicated citizen volunteers who work in and around the West Valley Police Station. They work hand in hand with our officers in the daily function of our station. They do so for no pay but solely because of their concerns about their community.

The West Valley Station has also developed a proactive Community Police Advisory Board. This board includes 35 citizens from the community who meet monthly with our commanding officer. They express their concerns about the state of the community and present solutions and ideas to our captain. He in turn takes their input seriously and develops solutions to deal with their concerns.

Our office in conjunction with L.A. City Councilwoman Laura Chick have instituted an outreach program for senior citizens. The “Gray Squad” program is meant to assist senior citizens with issues of crime that affect them and also to provide a wide array of referral services to help them cope with the many bureaucracies they face in their daily lives. This program will be a positive force in the lives of our senior citizens.

Future plans include a citizen police academy. This academy will train a group of our citizens so that they will understand the role of a modern police force in the community.

Our station also oversees the activities of hundreds of Neighborhood Watch block captains. The lines of communication are always open and are a valuable source of information to our patrol officers.

These programs and philosophies are light-years ahead of what the department represented 22 years ago and for that matter even two years ago. Your editorial staff needs to stop looking solely at high-level commissions and politically appointed committees and instead look at what is currently happening at the grass-root level. If you did so, I am sure you would temper your criticism.

Officer IAIN HAMILTON

West Valley Community Police Station

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