More Patrols Urged to Curb Crime in Parks

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn on Monday called on the Police Department to increase patrols at the city’s most dangerous parks, saying he is alarmed by a recent increase in crime in the community’s green spaces.

“We can’t allow our parks to become safe havens for criminals,” said Hahn, surrounded by residents and other city officials at Silver Lake’s Bellevue Park, a place the mayor called one of the city’s most crime-plagued parks.

A week after announcing he does not support a second term for Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, the mayor continued to focus on what he says is the city’s rising crime rate.

On Monday, Hahn refrained from explicitly criticizing the chief, but he made it clear that he believes more needs to be done to combat violence.

“We need to have police officers where the problems are,” Hahn said. “We can’t surrender the parks to the criminal element.”

But police officials said the LAPD already patrols parks and that the mayor’s proposal would be inefficient.

The debate over park safety reflects the running disagreement between Hahn and Parks about the city’s crime trends.

The mayor cites a 17.3% increase in violent crime over the last two years as a sign that the city is getting more dangerous, while Parks notes that violent crime has been lower under his tenure than during the previous four-year period.

Police Department officials say Hahn is just taking a snapshot of the actual crime trend.

“It’s inaccurate to say today that we have a serious crime problem in the city of Los Angeles based on the last year of statistics,” said LAPD Cmdr. Gary Brennan. “You have to look at crime over time.”

But Hahn said the numbers show that crime is going up.

“Obviously, if you average things in and average it over five years and 10 years, you can make statistics say anything you want,” the mayor said. “The facts speak for themselves. There’s a problem and a problem that needs to be resolved.”

On Monday, Hahn used the city’s parks to draw attention to the issue, noting that there were 21% more criminal incidents reported to the park ranger staff in 2001 than the year before. LAPD officials did not have comparable statistics about the crime rate in parks immediately available.

The mayor cited several recent shootings as evidence of the need for a greater police presence in the parks. In November, a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in the lobby of St. Andrews Recreation Center in South Los Angeles. In December, suspected gang members fired into the Wilmington Recreation Center, sending more than 100 people fleeing for cover.

And last week, staff members at the Jim Gilliam Recreation Center in South Los Angeles locked themselves inside the building as a shooting suspect was chased through the park.

Hahn asked the Police Commission to study the idea of creating a dedicated park police unit within the Police Department, similar to the transportation unit that patrols the city’s buses and subways. The mayor also asked the City Council to approve an ordinance that would increase penalties for crimes committed in parks.

In the meantime, the mayor said he wants the LAPD to increase its patrol of the 20 most dangerous parks in the city.

But Brennan said the LAPD already has a safe parks program, which coordinates patrol officers, senior lead officers and the unarmed park rangers who work for the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks.

Under the program, police officers are responsible for the safety of the parks in the neighborhoods they patrol and work with the park staff and rangers to combat crime and other problems, he said.

Brennan said the idea of a separate park patrol would take officers away from other responsibilities.

“It’s frankly an inefficient use of resources and it’s not the best way to do police work,” he said.

As Hahn announced his proposal, children chased each other across the grass and residents sipped coffee. But the peaceful morning scene belied what neighbors say happens in Bellevue Park at dusk.

When night approaches, the small green nook tucked into a hillside is overrun with gang members drinking beer and smoking marijuana, according to neighbors and park staff.

Last year, a 14-year-old girl was shot and killed in the park.