14A49 COMMUNITY BASED POLICING MEETING, JUNE 12, 2004

Bill Williams, Pacific Division’s new captain, introduced himself and provided a brief background on his experience. He has been a policeman for 25 years spending a number of them with the Pacific Division, in addition to Venice, and the LA Substation. He reported that area-wide crime is down 25% and expressed his hope that this trend will continue. There have been a few crimes in our area – burglary from homes and autos but overall crime remains low. Because of our low crime rate, officers continue to be deployed to other areas where there are problems.

For the time being Officer Beacham will remain at the Pacific Division until he is promoted. We hope an officer of his caliber replaces him.

Officer Beacham introduced Sergeant Cooney who is in her fifth tour of duty with the Pacific Division. She was present at the Wednesday night meeting, substituting for Sergeant Shay. The purpose of her visit was to introduce us to National Night Out, a new nationwide activity whereby communities across the nation join together to make a statement that they will not put up with criminal activity in their communities and that their crimes will be reported to the police. National Night Out is scheduled to take place on August 3rd. Participants will gather at the Pacific Division at 7:00 p.m. and march to the Mar Vista Gardens. Sergeant Cooney hopes to have a minimum of 200 – 300 participants. It was suggested that on this evening we put blue light bulbs in our porch lights. An ad advertising the National Night Out will be featured in the Argonaut and banners will be hung at the intersections of Culver Blvd. and Inglewood and Culver Blvd. and Centinela. It is hoped that it will become a yearly event.

The St. Gerard Majella’s annual festival is scheduled for June 25th through the 27th and will be held in their parking at the corner of Inglewood and Culver Blvd.

Sheree Routier, Manager of the Mar Vista Gardens, was a guest speaker and gave us an update on this neighborhood housing project. All of the gates for pedestrian entry have been closed. Residents gain access to the Gardens by using entry cards. Vehicular gates are being worked on to allow police and emergency vehicles to enter and exit.

A towing contract is in the process of being finalized whereby tow trucks will daily patrol the grounds and immediately deal with derelict vehicles on the property including, illegal tenant parking and cars parked on lawns.

Sheree stated the Mar Vista Gardens housing project consists of 601 units, however she did not know the number of tenants – there are thousands.
Another improvement will be removal of the current lighting and replacement with more state-of-the-art fixtures that will deter loitering and crime.

She commented that Mar Vista Gardens has a zero tolerance for crime. If a family member commits a crime, the entire family is evicted.

Another upgrade will be the removal of the current lighting and replacement with more state-of-the art fixtures that will help with the problems of loitering and crime.

The issue of fireworks was brought up and Sheree was asked what plans are in place to deal with the 4th of July fireworks in the Mar Vista Gardens. She replied there isn’t much she can do. She commented that it has been reported that some of the grocery vehicles coming through Mar Vista Gardens are selling fireworks from their trucks. She commented if she ever learns of this activity, the offending grocer will be permanently banned from the Mar Vista Gardens.

As far as her plans for herself at the Mar Vista Gardens, she would like to work there for at least five years. After one year she is still in the process of cleaning up the grounds, informing residents of the rules and enforcing them. While she has come a long way she still has a ways to go.

She keeps flexible hours and it cannot be predicted when she will be on the grounds during the day or evening. This deters the criminal element from coming to the Mar Vista Gardens to commit crime.

On June 6th around 5:00 p.m. there was a shooting in Heidi Yannes’s area at 11928 McDonald Street. A Culver City Boyz gang member got the best of a Venice 13 gang member, followed him to McDonald Street and fired rounds into the car. No one was hurt – only the car was damaged. The Culver City Boyz gang member does not live on McDonald Street.

On June 12th a motor officer was off of his motorbike writing a ticket in the area of Marshall Street when a vehicle took his bike out and sped away. The officer was not hurt. Culver City police located the person and got into a shooting match with him. No one was hurt and the person was taken, into custody.

In the crime report period there were four reportable crimes. In the last period there were six. Our area was third lowest in crime of all of the basic cars.

One attendee complained of people in a vehicle near a grade school drinking alcohol. . Police in the area did not cite them.

Officer Beacham instructed everyone to water down their property on the 4th of July and get rid of any dry brush.

Police from west traffic are out and about enforcing speed limits.

An invitation was extended to all meeting attendees along with their family and friends to attend the annual Venice Japanese Community Festival being held on June 19th and 20th at the Venice Japanese Community Center at 12448 Braddock Drive.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Brier