Mobilizing Against a Molester

Southern Californians are again confronting the terror of a serial child molester, this one prowling Inglewood, Hawthorne, Ladera Heights, Lennox and other South Los Angeles areas. There is much to consider here.

* A Slow Response? The “South Bay molester” is suspected of two rapes, four molestations and five attempted abductions of children since January. Community leaders have expressed outrage that an investigative task force was not established until mid-June. But the police response was far quicker than in the last major case involving a serial child molester: In November 1993, 10 months after the initial attack, Los Angeles police first warned the public about a criminal believed to have molested 26 young victims.

Could there be quicker action by law enforcement agencies? Some criminal and medical experts consider anyone who commits four or more such crimes to be a chronic molester. Perhaps authorities here could adopt a similar standard and warn the public at an earlier point.

* Useful and Not So Useful Responses. The public response is crucial in these cases, especially since the victims are so young that they are unlikely to note important facts such as the license plate number of a vehicle or its year and make. (The South Bay molester is believed to use a gray van.)

The best ideas: Form Neighborhood Watch units and use their members as lookouts; create school, park and community alliances that recruit adults to watch specific blocks, street corners and playgrounds; establish “safe houses” where children can go if strangers approach; flood the crime areas with fliers, composite drawings and police telephone numbers.

The worst ideas: telephone pagers, hand-held alarms, pepper spray devices and self-defense courses for children. All provide a false sense of security. A child’s immediate reaction should be to run from the danger. A scream is just as good as an alarm device, and youngsters don’t have to remember where they are carrying it.

* The President’s Directive. President Clinton has directed the Justice Department to devise a nationwide plan to track child molesters and other sex offenders. “We must make sure police officers in every state can get the information they need,” the president said. In this case, a Justice Department investigator has turned over a three-inch-thick notebook about Southern California sex offenders with similar methods of operation. It is hoped that will assist in ending this horrible crime spree.