The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Front : Themed City a Walk in Park for Deputies

The tiny storefront that houses the roughly half dozen sheriff’s deputies assigned to patrol Universal CityWalk and the adjoining studios is usually one of the most obscure, least dramatic beats any deputy could have.

But the recent Mother’s Day double killing atop a CityWalk parking structure has thrown a spotlight on the sheriff’s substation situated in the heart of an amusement park that is one of Southern California’s glitziest attractions.

“This is basically a city of 30,000 people, most of whom are tourists,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Brad Welker, who is in charge of the office, a substation of the West Hollywood station.

Indeed, according to Welker, each day between 30,000 and 50,000 people tour Universal Studios, dine and shop at CityWalk and catch a movie at its giant 18-screen movie theater.

For the sheriff’s deputies assigned to patrol the sprawling theme park, it makes for a different type of policing than they are accustomed to.

“This isn’t the kind of police work where you chase the radio around, going from call to call,” Welker said. “This is the kind of work where you deal with people.”

Sometimes that means patiently posing for pictures with visiting tourists. Other times it means trying to soothe over a family fight.

But most of the time, said Welker, it means getting to meet “a lot of nice people.”

That may be one reason why there is a waiting list of deputies who want to be assigned to the unique substation, which is situated just above a Mexican restaurant on the CityWalk promenade. Deputies who work there patrol the theme park by foot, car, horse and bike.

The responsibility falls on the Sheriff’s Department because although Universal City is surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, it has never been incorporated into the city; it’s still unincorporated county territory.

Welker said the substation opened about two years ago and that deputies--whose numbers vary from day to day--try to take a preventive approach to crime.

Deputies keep an eye out for pickpockets and they patrol parking structures.

And while the Mother’s Day slayings of Doris Carasi, 61, and Sonia Salinas, 29, may have given the impression that CityWalk is a dangerous place to visit, crime statistics tell a different tale, Welker said.

Despite the tens of thousands of tourists who visited the theme park each day, last year only 534 crimes were reported, including 365 thefts, 73 attempted or actual car thefts, 49 aggravated assaults and 43 burglaries, mostly from cars.

But when the occasional violent crime does occur at CityWalk, Welker said, it makes the news in a big way. “Things tend to be magnified when they happen at CityWalk,” Welker said. “There tends to be a focus on it by the media.”

Welker and other sheriff’s deputies have gone out of their way to point out that the killing of Carasi and Salinas was an isolated event. (Carasi’s son and his current girlfriend have been identified by sheriff’s investigators as suspects in the case, and she is under arrest.)

Welker acknowledges that the double slaying is the most unusual and violent crime that he’s aware of at CityWalk, but he said it’s an unusual crime by any standard.

Gang brawls that have happened at CityWalk in the past, for example, have gotten more than their fair share of news coverage simply because of where they happened, Welker contends.

Maybe that’s because CityWalk has been promoted as a fun place to grab a taste of L.A. in a safe, orderly environment, a “clean street” in place of the mean streets.

Some urbanists, planners and architects have been less kind, describing it as a surrogate for urban life and an Orwellian vision of the city.

But Welker disagrees.

“To those who would detract from this place, I look at it as somewhere that a lot people can enjoy an entertainment center, take tours and watch movies in a relatively safe environment,” Welker said.

Which is just what Welker plans to preserve.