L.A. Police and Volunteers

* Using citizen volunteers on the part of Los Angeles Police Department (May 6) is not only an unsafe practice but it gives one more reason why they call this place La-La Land. What happens if the supposed truant student is off-track and commits a crime by walking down the street during school hours? What if the men in blue nab a lad who’s from out of town with his folks? What if a real crook--the kind who causes us to bar our doors and windows and makes us afraid to go out at night--knocks off one of these vigilantes?

Thanks to your article, fogies over 50 sitting in cars with walkie-talkies, wearing wigs and peeping through newspapers could be sitting ducks for any of these predators.

TIMOTHY L. WAHL

Glendale

*

* The Times reported that Los Angeles intends to double the number of officers assigned to motorcycle patrol in order to reduce traffic accidents (May 3). Who is the city kidding? This is simply a ruse to increase the number of police officers collecting revenue for the city by issuing tickets. It’s the way the city squeezes more money out of an overtaxed citizenry without a tax referendum.

Police officials are always puzzled by citizen animosity toward them. Well, turning policemen into predators, who hide behind bushes on motorcycles waiting to prey upon citizens driving around the neighborhood, doesn’t help.

It’s a sorry state of affairs when more policemen are assigned to revenue collection than fighting serious crimes.

WILLIAM CAREY

Sherman Oaks

*

* The LAPD does more good than the department gets credit for. Witness: An LAPD motor officer on his way to work for the swing shift stopped in Chino Hills to assist a motorist broken down in an out-of-the-way location. That was extraordinary and not required. I’m sure that many of L.A.’s finest as well as many other departments’ officers do the same thing hundreds of times daily without any credit.

Citizens appreciate these officers’ efforts, and the credit is well deserved even if not formally documented. Thank you, LAPD and other officers, for the extra efforts.

ELTON KRUG

Chino Hills