School Police to Halt Patrols at Official’s Home

Los Angeles School Supt. Sid Thompson directed school police officials Thursday to immediately cancel nightly patrols outside his Bel-Air home, saying he was unaware he was getting special protection at the same time that school police have complained of having too few officers to cope with a $16-million wave of campus burglaries and vandalism.

Thompson defended the 3-year-old practice Wednesday in a memo to school board members, saying he and his family have received hate mail and threats. But in an interview Thursday, the superintendent said he planned to cancel the patrols, despite receiving a threat as recently as a month ago.

“I told school police, pull them off,” Thompson said. “I don’t feel like dealing with it. Threats or not, I’ll deal with my own security.”

Thompson acted because he “doesn’t want to create an argument over this or create a public perception that may be negative,” said Brad Sales, Thompson’s special assistant for communications.

The reversal came after The Times reported Thursday that an April 1993 memo ordered watch commanders for the Los Angeles Unified School District police force to send a marked patrol car to check twice a night on Thompson’s home, which is already protected by the private Bel-Air Patrol.

The memo also ordered that a sergeant check the house if patrol units were unavailable and that a confidential weekly log be maintained of the patrols.

A written report was to be submitted to a high-ranking school police official if the patrols could not be performed because units were unavailable.

Thompson said Thursday that he assumed the patrol cars he saw passing his residence were merely passing by on their way to patrol an elementary school a few blocks away.

“I did not realize . . . that they were redirecting the patrol vehicles from a patrol they might normally take to go by my house,” Thompson said.

The nearby school has not had a significant problem with burglars or vandals in recent years, according to a school official. But others, outside Thompson’s neighborhood, have.

Canterbury Avenue Elementary School in Arleta, for example, was struck by burglars and vandals 10 times in less than six months. And in South-Central Los Angeles, Normandie Avenue Elementary School was broken into 35 times in just over a year.

The Times received a copy of the memo ordering the patrols to check on Thompson’s house after publishing a report June 13 that more than $16 million had been lost to burglars and vandals in less than three years as a result of about 3,000 break-ins at school buildings each year.

School administrators have said that there are simply too few school police to effectively patrol the district’s sprawling turf.

Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles--the teachers’ union--said Thompson should have notified the Los Angeles Police Department if he was receiving threats. It made more sense, she added, for school police to focus their scant resources on schools that are frequently targeted by criminals.

Bernstein, a frequent critic of perks for high-ranking school officials, called on Thompson to end the patrols past his home. Saying she pays for her own home security, she urged that Thompson repay the district for the expense.

Thompson rejected the suggestion. “I’m not reimbursing anything,” he said. “Why should I? I was threatened and the threat was about my job. I asked somebody to go by my house just to check it . . . and I assumed it was on a normal route.”

School police are locked in bitter contract negotiations with the district in an effort to gain better equipment, relaxed restrictions on overtime pay and more officers. The number of sworn officers has dropped from 350 in the mid-1970s to about 275 today.

School police are also fighting a proposal by the district to force officers to take vacations when schools are out, such as during Christmas, summer and spring breaks.

Many of the district’s break-ins occur during such vacations when the campuses are left vacant for long periods of time.

Richard Keith, general manager of the Los Angeles School District Police Officer’s Assn., said he was pleased to hear that Thompson is ending the patrols.

“Our primary protection is supposed to be of the students and property,” Keith said.

Suzanne Sincock, a vice president of the Valley Parent Teacher Student Assn., agreed with Keith.

“I’m glad [Thompson] has set his priorities for the good of all children. . . . Scarce district resources are better spent in the classroom,” she said.

Tamaki is a Times staff writer and Folmar is a correspondent.