LAPD Gets Neighborly With Small-Time Crime

As far as most busts go, it was peanuts. On Thursday, that was enough to get Daniel Torres arrested by Los Angeles police officers for selling bags of the dry-roasted snacks--and oranges--on a residential street.

The arrest was part of a move toward more back-to-basics policing launched this week by the LAPD’s Foothill Division. The goal: crack down on small-time crime.

Capt. Ronald Bergmann, who has headed the northeast San Fernando Valley station for 16 months, said the program is aimed at driving away petty criminals.

“It’s nothing new and earthshaking--it’s just what the LAPD used to do when we had more time and less crime,” Bergmann said. “I have this theory--and I’m not the only one--that if you take care of the small things, the bigger things will take care of themselves.”

On Valentine’s Day, the officers cited dozens of flower sellers who were told to move their enterprises off city street corners. A day earlier, officers watched as a county health inspector carefully removed cockroaches from a catering truck and barred the owners from selling their goat-meat tacos, seafood tostadas and bean burritos, among other dishes.

Bergmann, who is holding meetings with his sergeants and other supervisors this week, said he is attempting to change the attitudes of patrol officers who are more interested in responding to a radio call than citing a truant.

“When a call comes in about an illegal flower vendor, they should cite the vendor and not lecture the store owner for making the call,” Bergmann said.

Police officers, along with building and safety and health department inspectors, fanned out across parts of the northeast Valley this week, cracking down on illegal street vendors.

“I could be handcuffing somebody right now,” said Lead Officer M. Jimenez as he stood in the sun keeping a watch on the catering truck. “But we have to put everything in the proper perspective and right now, this is the priority.”

It’s the kind of police work reminiscent of small towns but increasingly being tried in bigger cities. In New York, for example, the police are aggressively targeting vagrancy and other so-called lower-level crimes.

City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the Pacoima area, said: “They’re targeting what I call nuisance crimes.”

Alarcon said he supports the officers’ efforts because they are dealing with neighborhood problems, the kind of trouble that too often goes unnoticed.

Aside from the street vendors, Foothill’s efforts will include more attention paid to truancy, curfew violations, traffic citations and illegal alcohol use. Last weekend, for example, officers staked out San Fernando Road to curb street racing. Officers made 21 arrests for curfew violations and issued 33 parking citations.

Foothill’s efforts are part of a citywide attempt to respond more quickly to nagging problems in city neighborhoods, LAPD officials said.

“Traditionally, we’ve been elephant hunting--we go out looking for the armed robber, the murderer or the rapist,” said Lt. Anthony Alba, a spokesman for the department. “But the police also need to respond to the community’s problems.”

Said Foothill Sgt. Jim Brady: “We’re just not ignoring the little things. Everyone wants to make that great arrest, but I think if the department started rewarding and putting weight into this stuff, it would change the thought process. A felony arrest is not the only thing worth doing.”