The Los Angeles chief of police took the podium at the Galen Center, continuing a conversation he started with the University Park and Exposition Park neighborhoods more than 30 years ago as an officer working his beat.

But Charlie Beck told the crowd on March 4 that he was not the same officer and the Los Angeles Police Department was not the same department as the day he joined the force in 1977.

"When I was a young police officer working this division, I went from emergency call to emergency call to emergency call, never fixing anything and making arrests occasionally," Beck told more than 100 residents, students, faculty and staff.

"I was only treating the symptoms of the problem. The police officers now, because we have more officers, they are better trained and they can spend more time and because they are smarter, they are able to get to the roots of the problem and fix things. That's our goal - not to treat the symptoms but to get at the root of the problem."

The town hall-like event, hosted by USC Government and Community Relations, is part of a "Community Conversations" series that cover topics affecting USC and its surrounding communities. This forum on public safety follows the success of the first conversation on student behavior and neighborhood quality of life last fall.

"The purpose is to bring USC students and staff and community residents and stakeholders together to discuss issues and share ideas," said Thomas Sayles, vice president of USC Government and Community Relations. "The university wants an environment that is safe for everyone - not only for our students and staff but also the residents and businesses that comprise this vibrant community."

Beck wants to improve the community as a whole - addressing blight, graffiti and safety - as a way to decrease the crime rate, which has dropped since the civil unrest in 1992. There has been a 50 percent decrease in homicides across the city since 2001.

"That has been achieved not only through better policing but better partnerships," Beck said. The department has reduced crime and "become an integral piece of the community that brings people together instead of tearing them apart," he noted.

Before Beck was selected to replace William Bratton in November, he was the chief of the South Los Angeles bureau, and he had shaped up the Rampart Division, which had been at the center of a corruption scandal.

Now in the midst of budgetary battles that have encroached on every police department, Beck is steadfast in his call to keep the number of officers on the street at the current level of 10,000. He also has made it a priority to return to his old neighborhood, offering reassurance to the community.

At USC, Beck was part of a panel discussion on neighborhood public safety that included Jan DeAndrade from the city Attorney's Neighborhood Prosecutor Division; Shawn Simons, president of the North Area Neighborhood Development Council; Chief Carey Drayton of the USC Department of Public Safety; Denzil Suite, associate vice president for student affairs, and Helen Mosher, director of campus affairs for the USC Undergraduate Student Government.

Drayton and Robert Saltzman, associate dean of the USC Gould School of Law, were instrumental in attracting Beck to the discussion. Saltzman is also a police commissioner.