Parks Hears West Valley Residents’ Crime Fears

Chief of Police Bernard C. Parks--under the gun for last year’s jump in homicides, his handling of the Rampart Division investigation and dissatisfaction among rank-and-file officers for his refusal to back a compressed work schedule--held a town hall meeting with west San Fernando Valley residents Thursday evening.

Parks was warmly greeted at Taft High School by about 150 people who expressed concerns ranging from unsolved murders to cars racing through residential streets. Sitting at the stage of Taft Hall with Parks were Deputy Chief David J. Gascon, Valley Bureau Deputy Chief Ronald Bergman, and the commanding officers of the five Los Angeles Police Department geographical divisions that cover the Valley.

“Generally in the Valley, traffic is the No. 1 issue for most people,” said Parks, who added that cameras designed to identify red-light runners will soon be installed at several busy area intersections.

Devonshire Division Capt. Joseph Curreri said that in his division alone, nine people have died in traffic accidents so far this year. That is only three fatalities fewer than for all of last year, he said. Valleywide, there have been 19 traffic-related deaths so far this year; there were 78 such deaths last year, said Capt. Greg Meyer of Valley Traffic.

Although Parks said homicides in the city rose from 424 in 1999 to 540 last year, the number was still dramatically lower than in the early 1990s, when more than 1,000 homicides occurred annually.

“We are very concerned whenever we have a homicide,” Parks said. “But in a city with 4 million people, there is going to be a certain level of baseline crime.”

At the meeting, Bergman said the groundbreaking on a sixth Valley division, at San Fernando Mission and Sepulveda boulevards in Mission Hills, should begin in two weeks.

Regarding a compressed work schedule--in which officers would work 12-hour shifts three days a week--that many officers have clamored for, Parks said it would take too many police cars off the streets.

“We all would like to work three or four days a week, myself included, but we don’t have the ability to do that yet,” he said.

One part of the meeting that was greeted with enthusiastic applause was a slide show highlighting several Police Department projects aimed at reducing crime and eliminating blight.

It has been a busy week for the chief.

On Tuesday, The Times reported that a confidential Dec. 28 report by the police commission inspector general stated that the department sought to bypass county prosecutors handling the Rampart corruption probe and that the chief made “misleading comments” about the matter.

Parks later denied the charges of the report by Inspector General Jeffrey C. Eglash, saying: “I will categorically state that I have not misled the public nor any member of the commission or this department.”

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley defended Parks, saying the chief has cooperated with his office.

On Wednesday, mayoral candidate and City Councilman Joel Wachs said that if he were elected, he would dump Parks at the end of the chief’s term next year.