Crime Reduction Effort Launched in City Terrace

For the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to reduce crime in the gang-plagued City Terrace neighborhoods of the Eastside, residents must speak out about problems there.

That was the message delivered Wednesday at a community forum to kick off a yearlong effort by a special sheriff’s task force formed to fight crime in the hillside community along the San Bernardino Freeway southwest of Cal State L.A.

“If you don’t tell us, then we can’t do anything,” Deputy Robert Ruiz Jr. told some of the 100 residents who attended.

Sheriff’s officials acknowledge that winning the public’s trust will be key to the campaign. City Terrace for years has been the home of at least three major street gangs, and previous law enforcement efforts have had mixed results.

Residents often complain that deputies ignore calls for help, or that there are not enough of them to police gang members, whose knowledge of the area’s narrow, winding streets often allows them to avoid capture.

When Lee Baca was elected sheriff in 1998 to succeed the late Sherman Block, the Eastside native promised to fight crime in City Terrace. He said he would use federal funds to pay for a special detail of one sergeant and 18 deputies to patrol the area.

Under the community policing approach, government agencies as diverse as the California Highway Patrol and the county animal control department will augment the work of the sheriff’s task force.

The problems run deep in City Terrace.

According to a door-to-door survey conducted by sheriff’s deputies in February, only 15% of the estimated 700 residents polled said they felt safe in the community, which is home to an estimated 39,000 people. The remaining respondents expressed varying degrees of concern for their safety.

Surveyed residents ranked gangs, drugs and vandalism as City Terrace’s biggest problems.

Baca acknowledged the area’s crime problems, but he said residents attending the kickoff at City Terrace Elementary School were making a good start at turning the neighborhood around. “We’re very pleased that you’re here,” the sheriff said.

Residents separated into four groups to talk about specific problems in their neighborhoods.

In Room 11, about 20 people from the hilly neighborhood near City Terrace Park met. Several elderly women peppered county animal control officers Victor Gamont and Alex Castaneda with questions.

“Where do we call when we see un monton de perros?” asked one woman, complaining about packs of stray dogs.

“Call (562) 940-1987,” Gamont answered in Spanish and English.

When anti-gang Sgt. Luis Duran visited the room, he too faced many questions.

“We give strict confidentiality to those people who call us,” he said, trying to persuade doubters to telephone authorities. “That’s of utmost importance.”

One woman asked Duran why deputies ignored two 911 calls she made last weekend to complain about a loud party. Deputies arrived only after she directly called the sheriff’s station in East L.A., she said.

Keep calling, Duran advised.

“I don’t care if the problem is at Whittier [Boulevard] and Indiana [Street, outside of City Terrace’s boundaries],” Deputy Chad Eitner said in Room 11, “we’ll send a team of deputies there.”