Police conduct countywide sweep of parolees with guns
Larry Altman
Torrance Daily Breeze
Aug 27, 2010
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined law enforcement leaders at Home Depot Center in Carson to announce results of Operation Disarm. The operation is the largest parole sweep in the history of Los Angeles County. Gov. Schwarzenegger announces results alonside Sheriff Lee Baca. (Robert Casillas / Staff Photographer)
Nearly 80 parolees were arrested and more than 20 weapons seized during what was billed Thursday as the largest sweep of its kind in the history of Los Angeles County.
About 1,000 officers from 17 federal, state and local agencies worked together, checking on high-profile parolees from the Antelope Valley on the north to the southern portion of the county.
Called Operation Disarm, the sweep targeted parolees with felony convictions for gun crimes.
By late morning, police had arrested 77 parolees primarily because they had guns and recovered 21 guns, more than 150 rounds of ammunition and drugs that included marijuana and cocaine, the Governor's Office said.
Eleven children were taken into protective custody.
Parole agents, police officers and other law enforcement officials began serving warrants before dawn.
Parole agent Steve Bartholomy, right, places handcuffs on Mark Olvera who violated parole outside Olvera's home in Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010. (The Associated Press)
"This was a rude awakening for a lot of these parole violators," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said at a news conference at the Home Depot Center in Carson, which served as a base for law enforcement.
Schwarzenegger was flanked by officials including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, and county Sheriff Lee Baca.
Police checked about 300 parolees.
Beck said the operation was conducted with "no drama, no use of force, just good quality police work."
In Hawthorne, police officers and Lennox sheriff's deputies checked on seven parolees. One was arrested when he was found to have a gun, Hawthorne police Lt. Gary Tomatani said.
Five of the parolees were determined to be complying with the terms of their releases. One man was not living at the location he had provided authorities. A warrant was issued for his arrest, Tomatani said.
Parole agents from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation enter a parolee's home during a raid in Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010. Authorities say they've arrested more than 60 people in a Los Angeles-area parole sweep designed to take illegal guns off the streets. State, local and federal agents spread out Thursday morning to determine whether 300 people who went to prison for gun crimes are obeying their parole terms. Violators could go back to prison. (The Associated Press)
Other sweeps have occurred recently in Northern California.
"We're taking people with guns off the street," Villaraigosa said.
Schwarzenegger said the effort was part of reforms that have lowered parole agents' caseloads and allowed them to focus on high-risk offenders, along with allowing the state to hire more agents.
Led by the Department of Corrections, the sweep included agents and officers from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Los Angeles Police Department, county Sheriff's Department, county Probation Department, county Department of Children and Family Services, county District Attorney's Office, and police from Bell Gardens, Whittier, Inglewood, Pasadena, Hawthorne, Downey, El Monte, Huntington Park and Glendale. Agents from the U.S. Marshals Service also participated.
