Community Crime Reports Postponed

Los Angeles police officials said Tuesday that plans to release a set of reports reflecting residents’ top crime concerns in the San Fernando Valley and other parts of the city have been put on hold.

LAPD Commander Garrett Zimmon said he chose to delay and will possibly cancel the release of the first State of the Community reports after safety concerns were voiced by Community Police Advisory Board members, who helped draft the reports.

Officers at each of the city’s 18 police divisions began working with advisory board members last year to produce reports that identify problems affecting the quality of life in their neighborhoods and propose strategies to deal with them. The advisory boards are composed of groups of residents who meet monthly with the commanding officer at each police division.

Summaries of the reports, which are the result of a ground-breaking effort between police and residents, were released Monday. The full reports were scheduled to be released later this week.

But Zimmon said those plans were put on hold after some advisory board members said they were concerned about the reports being released to the news media because they identify specific crime-fighting strategies. Board members, for example, who planned to target gang members in certain neighborhoods may be put at risk if their plans are made public.

Gaining the trust of the advisory board members, a key component of the LAPD’s community-based policing program, is a top priority, Garrett said. Whether the reports will be released at a future date has not been determined.

Summaries of the reports show that gangs frightening residents in public parks, an increase in the homeless population, proliferating graffiti and street robberies and car thefts are among the problems that trouble Valley residents the most. The reports also suggested a list of solutions that residents and police can work on together.

In the Devonshire Division, for example, police and advisory board members are studying the possibility of establishing an “Adopt-a-Wall” program that would call on residents to adopt a freeway underpass and check it daily for graffiti.

And in West Valley, foot patrols have been established along sections of Sherman Way in Canoga Park and Reseda in an effort to ease residents’ fears and to help stave off crime.