Letter: Police negligent on crosswalk concerns

Five little school children had to cross Alameda Avenue by themselves on Oct. 22 between 7:30 and 8 a.m. without the aid of a crossing guard.

For more than a month I have observed an irresponsible and chronically late crossing guard on the corner of Keystone Street and Burbank Boulevard coming to work late over and over again. Late for the morning shift, late for the lunch shift and late for the afternoon shift, up to as much as 30 minutes late.

On Sept. 17 I emailed the Police Department about the issue. A week passed and there was no response. I called and left a message. No response. I wrote a two-page letter to the chief of police; no response. In desperation I wrote a letter to the Burbank Leader (“Looking for help with crossing guard,” Mailbag, Oct. 9)

After 20 days of trying, I finally received a response. I was given the usual snow job: They take these complaints seriously; yes, they will definitely monitor the situation; sorry, the supervisor was on vacation; sorry, the sergeant in charge of traffic was on vacation; sorry, it’s a new website and they’re still working the glitches out of it.

For the next few days the crossing guard did actually arrive on time, but within a week he was late again. I emailed the sergeant and he promised to take immediate action. The next day the irresponsible crossing guard was replaced by an earnest and gung-ho replacement, who by all accounts was a credit to the force. What happened to the always-tardy guard? They dumped him on another corner.

Five little school children had to cross Alameda Avenue alone without the aid of a crossing guard because of the Burbank Police Departments’ gross and arrogant negligence.

Richard Tafilaw
Burbank