Central Los Angeles : Bell Gardens Police Open Substation in Shopping District

What to do when a shopping district is blighted by petty thieves, hookers and crack sales? A place where three people overdosed on drugs in the same fast-food parking lot in three days?

Move the cops in.

Bell Gardens police officials opened a substation this week from which two bicycle officers will patrol a largely commercial five-block area four days a week, 10 hours a day.

“We have a quality-of-life problem for the whole area, and we are going to try and bring it back to livable standards for the businesses and residents,” said Fred Freeman, acting police chief.

With an estimated $5,000 donated by local businesses, the Bell Gardens Police Department furnished a rented mobile trailer on an empty city lot at Eastern and Florence avenues.

The two bicycle officers will work from the trailer, and other police officers can stop by to write reports.

Howard Sherwood, co-president of Daniel’s Jewelers, said store employees’ cars were often the target of thieves.

“We just believe that the high visibility of the police makes all the residents feel safe when they shop,” said Sherwood, whose business donated money to the police effort.

Police said the officers’ 18-speed mountain bikes will give them a chance to get a close look at criminals and non-criminals.