As parts of the San Fernando Valley experience a surge in gang-related killings and car burglaries, an additional 49 police officers were redeployed to the Valley Bureau this week under a citywide shift aimed at maintaining emergency response times.
The move falls under an effort by Police Chief Charlie Beck to strengthen the Los Angeles Police Department's patrol capabilities by reassigning 176 personnel citywide from centralized special units that tackle gangs, drugs and other high-profile crimes.
"I am extremely proud of the work that these men and women have been doing in their previous assignments; however, the critical staffing needs at the area level must remain my top priority," Beck said in a statement. "Area captains must be properly resourced and then held accountable for crime reduction."
The deployment is part of an ongoing plan to enable officers to respond to emergency calls within seven minutes. The department evaluates deployment at least four times a year, said Commander Jorge Villegas, who administers the deployment formula. Beck made a similar redeployment from a different centralized unit earlier this year.
The extra manpower comes just after a rash of shootings and homicides in the Foothill area within the last month as a result of flare-ups in gang activity. Since March 8, at least four killings have been reported in Pacoima. Citywide, there have been at least 70 murders since Jan. 1, Beck said.
The Valley has also seen a 9 percent uptick in car break-ins and car thefts this year in the Foothill, Mission and North Hollywood areas, even as the rates citywide have remained down.
The redeployment brings the total number of LAPD personnel in the Valley to 2,279.
Councilman Greig Smith, who works as an LAPD reserve officer, said he was pleased to see the additional officers assigned to the Valley.
"It's exactly what we need," Smith said. "We have had too few officers assigned to the Valley to work patrol."
To combat the recent problems in Foothill, anti-gang units and uniformed officers have already been shifted from other Valley stations, according to Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, head of LAPD's Valley Bureau.
More plainclothes officers in unmarked cars have also been reassigned to the areas experiencing car burglaries to capture thieves tempted by valuables lying in view, Albanese said, adding that several arrests have already been made.
Some of the incoming personnel, such as detectives, may not be assigned directly to patrol but to specialized assignments with an emphasis on patrol, such as gangs, said Commander James Cansler of the Valley Bureau.
But however the area captains choose to use the newcomers, it will free up other officers in less-specialized duties and result in more patrol cars on the streets, according to Albanese. One patrol car takes five officers to staff 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Ten officers would be required for around-the-clock patrol for a single squad car.
"It helps the violence, the visibility, the investigative follow-up capabilities," Albanese said. "It really runs the gamut."
The reassignments come at a time when the bureau is limited in its hiring ability and has been losing about 35 people a month for various reasons such as retirement. Aside from a few hires in January and March, the bureau hasn't made any major hires since October, Albanese said.
The hiring has slowed as the city faces a nearly $700 million budget shortfall over the next year-and-a-half. The size of the LAPD has been one of the more controversial sources of conflict between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has pledged to grow the department even while cutting other city services, and the City Council which wants to spread the cuts more evenly.
"So for Chief Beck to send us these resources, there couldn't be better timing on his part, because it helps us do our job," Albanese said. "Having those people has given us a greater agility or the ability to move resources around."
The reassignment comes just three months after Beck in January disbanded the Crime Reduction and Enforcement of Warrants Task Force, returning 138 officers to patrol duties. In deciding where the officers should be assigned, Beck acts on recommendations based on crime statistics and seasonal crime trends.
Nearly half of the officers in the most recent wave came from the Metropolitan Division and Gang and Narcotic Division, the two largest departments within the Special Operations Office. Forty officers were reassigned to the Central Bureau; South Bureau got 50 officers; and the West Bureau gained an extra 37 officers.
