Police Substation in Rossmoor Weighed

After years of planning and aggressive volunteer efforts, the Police Department finally has the substation it wanted to fight crime at the city’s busy pier.

An offer of free rent for a second substation, this one in the Rossmoor area, is drawing a cautious response from city officials, however.

The owners of Rossmoor Shopping Center have offered to remodel an empty storefront and let police use it free as a substation. Residents and merchants say increasing incidents of juvenile crime in the area warrant a stronger police presence.

But Mayor Marilyn Bruce Hastings, who met Friday with shopping center representatives and other community officials, said the storefront location lacks the visibility police would need to monitor the area effectively.

The city must also strengthen its reserve police officer program before it can staff a second substation, she said after a second meeting to discuss the offer. “It’s too premature right now,” Hastings said. “We can’t just dump people behind a couple of desks in a storefront behind a telephone and have a viable program.”

Councilwoman Gwen Forsythe said that the Rossmoor center “is definitely a trouble spot. We need to have a police presence there, just like at the pier.” But issues of cost must be resolved, she said. She suggested that a Rossmoor substation might be operated jointly with other nearby police agencies.

The pier substation was built last year after years of concern about rising crime in the area. A group of residents and downtown merchants banded together to raise the entire $134,000 for the facility.