Gore Meets With Police, Volunteers in West Valley

Vice President Al Gore, addressing police officers and community volunteers at the LAPD’s West Valley Division in Reseda, said the Clinton Administration is committed to finding innovative ways to fight crime, and cited a federal program to increase police patrols by easing officers’ paperwork burden.

Gore, in an effort to gain a pulse of California voters in the wake of military base closures, made his remarks to about 20 residents and police during a late Friday night stop at the West Valley station.

Gore chose the station because it is the first in the LAPD to receive a new computer system intended to reduce police paperwork.

“This is something extremely important to President Clinton and me, getting more officers out on the street instead of behind desks doing paperwork,” Gore said. “If it works as well as it seems to be working, then it is something we want to use elsewhere around the country.”

Each of the LAPD’s 18 divisions are scheduled to have the computers installed by June, 1996, purchased with part of an $18.3-million federal grant.

During a question-and-answer period with the volunteers, Gore emphasized the need to tap into Neighborhood Watch groups more often to strengthen ties between police officers and communities. He also stressed Democrats’ efforts to pass stricter gun-control laws.

Anita Bloom of Encino, a volunteer in the West Valley station’s community relations department--and a staunch Democrat--said she was thrilled to meet the vice president.

“It’s such an honor for him to come to the West Valley,” she said.