LAPD’s Devonshire District May Grow

Los Angeles police are devising a plan to hand over 1.4 square miles of the Van Nuys Division to the Devonshire Division in an effort to even out the workload between the two stations and to more effectively fight crime in Panorama City, officials said Tuesday.

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and Deputy Chief Michael J. Bostic presented their proposal at a Los Angeles City Council meeting held at the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Northridge.

The change, which is not yet definite, is up to Parks and the Police Commission to approve.

Called the “Witch’s Hat” because of its shape, the new boundary would extend the Devonshire Division east to Woodman Avenue.

The idea is to add to the Devonshire station a section of Panorama City that had become a geographic yo-yo for the two divisions, officials said. Although the area is now part of the Van Nuys Division, the same narcotics dealers and gang members found there also plague the east end of the Devonshire Division.

As officers in Devonshire cracked down on crime on their side of the border, the dealers and gang members crossed into the Van Nuys Division. As officers in Van Nuys tackled problems, the criminals returned to the Devonshire side.

For the past three years both sides have formed a task force to reduce crime. Despite their efforts, crime continues.

“We have not had the sustained results we’d like,” Parks said.

But Councilman Hal Bernson, whose district includes the Devonshire Division and its coverage area, said he is worried the added area would spread officers too thin. “The people in this district are concerned that their amount of police coverage will be diminished [by increasing the territory] in the rest of the division,” Bernson said.

Van Nuys Capt. Val Paniccia said the added 1.4 square miles would give the Devonshire Division 30 more patrol officers plus additional detectives and clerical personnel, making it easier for the division to devote more resources to special crime problems.

The Van Nuys Division now has 450 officers, and Devonshire 300.

Police officials say the change would also reduce some of the workload and reduce crowding at the Van Nuys station, which has 13 patrol areas versus nine in Devonshire.

Bernson said greater effort should be made to find a site for a new station, which he said is sorely needed in the northeast Valley. Although procurement of a permanent site may be far in the future, Bernson suggested a temporary site, such as the vacant Air National Guard base at Van Nuys Airport, could be used in the meantime.

Parks estimated even a temporary station would cost an estimated $5 million to $7 million.

If the proposal is approved, it would not be the first time the Devonshire Division picked up a portion of Van Nuys’ area. In 1987, five square miles of the Van Nuys Division was placed in Devonshire’s jurisdiction to more equitably split the divisions according to the crime workload. With that addition came a high-crime area in North Hills that runs along Roscoe Boulevard from the Golden State Freeway east to Pacoima Wash.