Boyle Heights Gets Support for Community-Policing Program

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and City Councilman Nick Pacheco met with about 500 Boyle Heights residents Saturday to pledge their support for a community-policing project.

Community leaders, motivated in part by the drive-by shooting death of a 10-year-old Boyle Heights girl in October 2000, developed the one-year pilot program and presented it to city officials at Dolores Mission Catholic Church.

The plan calls for bilingual officers to be assigned for one year each to the section of Boyle Heights between the Los Angeles River and the Santa Ana Freeway. The community is part of Pacheco’s 14th District.

The project summary also proposes that the Los Angeles Police Department institute “promotions and incentives based on effective community work” and 11 other principles, including the 24-hour presence of at least two officers in the area targeted for the pilot program.

“We’re saying that the current state of relations between the police and the community is almost nonexistent,” said Mario Fuentes of Dolores Mission Church. “We want to see that changed.”

Pacheco echoed the sentiment.

“I’m totally convinced this can work,” he said. “The essence of community policing is a mutual effort between the police and the community.”

The proposal was drawn up by 25 Boyle Heights residents, who received leadership training from Dolores Mission Church, Proyecto Pastoral and the Pacific Institute for Community Organization.

In their training, residents learned how to research crime statistics, traveled to San Diego to learn about that city’s community-policing model and conducted more than 500 interviews to identify concerns in the working-class neighborhood, Fuentes said.

During their presentation, they used charts, statistical information and detailed maps to help make their case for the project.

The crowd broke into applause after Parks, then Pacheco, pledged their support for the program. Both men asked the community to assist in the effort.

“We can’t do this alone,” Parks said.

Rita Chairez, who helped with the presentation, blushed with pride. “It feels powerful,” she said. “It feels like we’re making a change for our children.”

Pacheco praised the group’s organization and professionalism.

“This is what empowerment is about,” he said. “It breaks down the myth that poor people can’t be informed and persuasive.”

Gunfire has killed 18 people in Boyle Heights in the last eight months, police statistics show.

Several area residents cited the October 2000 drive-by shooting of 10-year old Stephanie Raygoza as an impetus for the effort. Also killed in the shooting was 19-year-old Raymond Hernandez.