CHP to Target Crime on Hollywood Boulevard

Raising his profile as a crime fighter, Gov. Pete Wilson will announce Monday that he is deploying California Highway Patrol officers to Hollywood Boulevard in hopes of cracking down on gang and drug activity.

The plan is modest--sending 17 officers every Friday and Saturday night to a problem-plagued 14 blocks. The effort is scheduled to begin this Friday and last for eight weeks.

Wilson aides said, however, that they have high hopes for improving conditions in a major tourist area since similar short-term deployments have already proven successful in about half a dozen cities.

“The governor hopes this will send a strong message to Los Angeles that we are serious about taking drugs off of our streets,” Sean Walsh, Wilson’s press secretary, said Saturday. “This is . . . a high-visibility area and a high drug and prostitution area.”

Walsh acknowledged the political message of a crackdown on crime shortly before an election.

The governor’s announcement Monday in Los Angeles, where he will be joined by Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Willie L. Williams, comes on the same day that GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole plans a major anti-drug speech in Pennsylvania.

Walsh said, however, that the state is responding to a request for assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department. He added that “good policy is good politics” since the CHP deployment has proved effective in the past.

In the Bay Area, CHP officers were sent to East Palo Alto in 1993 after the city reported the nation’s highest per-capita homicide rate. About 14 state officers patrolled the city for several months, helping to reduce the annual number of murders from 42 to five.

Fresno, meanwhile, reported a 3% drop in major crimes during the six-month period in 1994 when CHP officers were also deployed on weekends to a gang-troubled neighborhood.

Fresno Police Officer Rick Ventura said Saturday that the CHP assistance helped, but the trouble resumed when the show of force ended. “While it was here, it worked,” he said.

Los Angeles might face a similar situation. But officials said even a temporary boost would send a message and be beneficial.

“One of the things that makes any place better is when you try things,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who represents the Hollywood area. “We are going to try a variety of things to see if we can make this area tourist-friendly. This is one of the attempts. . . . If it works, you try to make it permanent.”

Goldberg said she worried that the crackdown, particularly spotlighted by election year politics, would portray the area to be more dangerous than reality.

“A lot has changed,” she said. “There is no graffiti; there is little illegal activity. There is definitely politics involved here. They want to make this seem like a crime- and drug-ridden area, but when they do that they make nobody come here. It is not a place where I feel afraid.”

Merchants in the area, however, have complained about heavy traffic congestion from “cruisers” who drive up and down the street on weekend nights. Police, who also report gang activity in connection with the weekend night life, have already been aggressive in the area with overtime-paid officer deployments and temporary road blockades.

On Saturday, however, Los Angeles police officials said they did not have statistics available about Hollywood Boulevard crime. They also said they could not disclose the number of officers now assigned to patrol the area on busy weekend nights.

State officials said their assistance is being provided at no cost to the city. They said the officers will be on regular-time pay and they will be temporarily removed from other assignments throughout Southern California.

The deployment will last from 7 p.m. until 3:30 a.m. each Friday and Saturday night until Nov. 9, the weekend after the election. The state officers will be stationed on Hollywood Boulevard between La Brea and Gower Street.

John Barna, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in Sacramento, said the state officers will focus on traffic enforcement.

He said their jurisdiction in the Hollywood Boulevard assignment stems from the motor vehicle code, which allows state police to enforce driving laws regardless of location.

Barna said the CHP presence will mean more aggressive enforcement of driving laws as well as auto registration and required equipment.

That focus, he said, is likely to deter traffic congestion and to turn up other criminal violations.

“They are going to enforce those [vehicle laws] vigorously and use that as a lever to deter other criminal activity,” he said. “

At the same time, Barna said, the police are sworn officers who will not ignore any criminal violation. That is why, he said, each of the CHP officers will be paired with a Los Angeles police officer.