When Officers Go Where the Crime Is : Community Policing Helps Solve Problems Quickly

The concept of community policing, being expanded in Orange County as in many cities across America, stresses close cooperation between police and residents. It brings to mind images of police in a neighborhood substation; police on bicycles; police on motor scooters or in golf carts, patrolling the streets, getting to know who belongs there and who does not.

The men and women in uniform are supposed to be based in a neighborhood so they can identify problems early and resolve them quickly, rather than responding from the station house after the crimes occur. It is an expensive form of police work. Garden Grove, Anaheim and Santa Ana deserve credit for getting grants and ponying up their own funds to make community policing a reality.

The Santa Ana Police Department opened a substation this month on a street that needs it badly, Minnie Street. The facility underscores the department’s commitment to trying to fight crime more effectively.

Minnie Street and the surrounding few blocks long have been known for gangs and crime, especially drugs. About 12,000 people live in 4 1/2 badly overcrowded blocks. This year there have been two murders and more than 150 calls to police about drugs.

Santa Ana wisely applied to the state for help in battling crime in the area and received a $100,000 grant. The money will pay for one police officer’s salary, benefits and expenses; the city will pay for a second officer.

The owner of an apartment building has donated an apartment to be used by the police. That is a good example of community involvement, which is necessary to help police do their jobs in any city; that support is especially needed when community policing brings the men and women in blue into the neighborhood.

Santa Ana Police Lt. Charles Magdalena struck the right note in saying the department wants to make people in the neighborhood feel better about living there and wants to get police “closer to the population.”

Santa Ana already had five substations. Now the Santa Ana Unified School District also wants to get into the act, seeking federal funds for community-oriented policing. The money would pay most of the salaries of three new officers for the district’s own police force.

Minnie Street residents turned out two weeks ago to welcome the substation and the police who will use it. The “welcome brigade” brought food, a sofa, a coffee maker and other gifts. Officer Daniel Alegre, who will be assigned to the substation, said he was “overwhelmed by the support.”

Police deserve that support and need it to help get criminals off the streets. In the past two years, Orange County pollsters have found that fear of crime ranks at the top of respondents’ concerns. That is especially true in poorer communities plagued by gangs and drugs. Community policing is a tool that can make residents feel safer.