Law enforcement officials praise success of South LA task force

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

imageLos Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said Tuesday he was proud of the results from the second year of Save Our Streets, a three-month collaboration between South Los Angeles police officers and the FBI.

This summer, the task force solved 50 murders, 85 percent of them gang-related. They included the Christmas Day shooting of Kashmier James ,who was killed in front of her 3-year-old daughter, and the killing later that week of Taburi Watson a 14-year-old boy riding his bicycle.

LAPD Deputy Chief Pat Gannon said the program helped bring closure to families who otherwise might never find answers.

“The homicide detectives, they do what they do, they get out at all hours of the night, they pull their hair out trying to find witnesses and people to cooperate in investigations, and they do it for the families,” he said. “The bond that they actually have with these families is actually unbelievable. But there’s a lot more work to be done.”

That work includes nearly 1,000 more unsolved homicides, some dating back to 1978. South Los Angeles remains far from safe, as a deadly shooting Tuesday at Algin Sutton Park on Hoover Street illustrated.

But Beck, and Stephen Martinez, the assistant director of the FBI in Los Angeles, worry that the program might not be renewed for another year. It relies on hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds to pay FBI agents and allow LAPD officers to work overtime, as well as to support an effort to digitize years of records.

“It is a sad but true statement to say that our ability to solve crime is often hampered by lack of funds,” Beck said. “When we can get federal funds, and we can get federal support, we can make a lot of progress, as has been evidenced by this task force.”

Gannon said the LAPD could use the help.

“The work goes on,” he said. “With the resources, without the resources, we seem to get the job done. But having the FBI really puts a jump-start, a kick-start into some of the cases that may have fallen behind.”

Beck said he’s hoping for a decision on the funding within the next six months, so that the program could be re-instated for next summer.

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Anti-gang operation makes hundreds of arrests

September 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News


imagePolice and FBI agents announced hundreds of arrests made as part of a three-month program called Save Our Streets.

The program was designed to help overworked South Los Angeles police. On average, they resolve less than half of their gang cases.

FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robert Clark said unsolved murders can lead to a loss of faith in law enforcement.

“All too often it’s the case when a family member is murdered, they don’t know what’s going to happen, they don’t understand the process,” he said.
“It becomes very frustrating wondering what’s going on, are they going to solve the case, are they going to catch anyone, and they become extremely disenfranchised with the police department and the criminal justice system.”

Clark said the Save Our Streets program solved more than 70 percent of its cases. That included an arrest in the murder of Kashmier James, a 25-year-old woman shot on Christmas in front of her young daughter.

“I had the opportunity to meet with the family of Kashmier James, and they could not have been more thankful,” he said. “Certainly we will never be able to bring Ms. James back, but we are able to allow that family to begin the process of healing because they know that justice has been served.”

Law enforcement officials are touting the 168 arrests made since July, but they also acknowledge thousands of cases remain unsolved.

Clark said he hopes the program will continue, but that the reduction in crime levels could make it less of a priority. The final decision lies with FBI and police management.

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New study says medical marijuana dispensaries lower crime rates

September 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

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A new study released by the RAND Corporation concludes that medical marijuana dispensaries decrease crime levels. The RAND Corporation’s study looked at crime rates in the areas surrounding 600 dispensaries. 170 of those shops closed after the LA City Council passed an ordinance shutting 70% of dispensaries last year. The study claims crime increased up to 60% within a three-block radius of the dispensaries after closing. Within six blocks, the rate was 25%. The LAPD has no official response yet to the the study, but Department Spokesman Lieutenant Andy Neiman did say:

“I can tell you that we know very factually that there have been very serious crimes at certain pot dispensaries, including burglary, robbery, and also murder.”

Lieutenant Neiman says the study’s conclusions don’t match the LAPD’s experience:

“You know, it’s something that has always been contrary to the common wisdom of law enforcement.”

LAPD is considering whether it will conduct its own study of the issue. Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group, has conducted studies which echo RAND’s findings. Don Duncan, the group’s California Director, says the LAPD’s response is typical:

“I’m not surprised to see law enforcement skeptical—they’ve ignored research on this topic and the experiences we’ve had in the past.”

Duncan hopes that the study will help convince cities to regulate, not ban, medical marijuana:

“So, the most important thing that our elected officials could realize is that they can regulate medical cannabis. It’s not too dangerous, it’s not too complicated, and I hope that the RAND study helps reinforce that point, that regulation is really the way to go”.

The study’s author cautions that the study is a snapshot of the issue and welcomes the opportunity to review more data.

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Sobriety checkpoints continue to raise tensions in South L.A.

August 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Dozens of demonstrators assembled near the Slauson Avenue 110 freeway onramp Friday night in a watchdog effort to verify that LAPD officers conducting a sobriety checkpoint were not impounding vehicles of drivers whose sole discretion was being unlicensed.

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Until a recent policy change, drivers caught without a license immediately lost their cars to an impound lot. The new policy allows unlicensed drivers to contact the registered vehicle owner within a “reasonable” amount of time, according to a notice released by Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing and Commander Stephen R. Jacobs on March 10.

“Just because they’ve changed the policy doesn’t mean they’re actually abiding by it, which is why we’re here,” said Colleen Flynn, member of the National Lawyers Guild. Guild lawyers, members of the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC), the International Socialist Organization and independent activists lined the street with signs intended to alert drivers of the checkpoint underneath the freeway bridge.

Before the checkpoint began screening cars, LAPD Sergeant Damon Aoki of the Central Traffic Division approached demonstrators to request that they not impede the flow of traffic, especially during a green light.

“This is not a driver’s license checkpoint. This is a sobriety checkpoint.” Aoki told demonstrators. “We generally cite for an unlicensed driver, but we give them a fair amount of time in order to call somebody that has a license—who has to be a registered owner—who then can give permission to another licensed driver if they don’t have one.”

Aoki estimated 30 minutes as a “fair amount of time” and explained that they require the vehicle’s registered owner to be present in order to release the vehicle because of liability issues. The traffic division conducts checkpoints about once a month. No cars were impounded on the night of the demonstration.

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“They do catch some drunk drivers, which is great,” said Ron Gochez, a member of Union del Barrio, an activist group within the SCIC. “This is a positive step for us, … but it’s not the end all.” Gochez explained that his group wants police to further amend the policy to allow unlicensed drivers to call any licensed driver—not just the registered owner—to take over the vehicle in case they are pulled over or screened at a checkpoint.

“We’re doing this to educate the community to let them know that they have the legal right to organize and protest to show their repudiation of these practices,” said Gochez. He noted that many community members have begun protesting on their own accord, coming out of their homes with anti-checkpoint signs and text messaging their neighbors when checkpoints are taking place.

image“We’ve very visible,” Gochez said. “They know we’re here.”

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LAPD officer finds passion in working with Southeast L.A. students

March 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment


When he was younger, Derek Kosloski wanted to be a special agent in the FBI. Now a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer, he imparts his love of law enforcement on students in Southeast Los Angeles.

Kosloski was on his way to work for the federal government when a hiring freeze forced him into a string of jobs that ended at the LAPD’s Southeast Division.

“I’ve put two major pimps in prison with investigations, but those took over a year and a half per case,” he said. “It’s hard on your personal life.”

After working in the vice division for several years, Kosloski was ready for a break from prostitution and pimps. He was unsure, however, about accepting a job heading the new Police Athletic League (PAL) for children in the Southeast area. Working with children and teenagers who are often victims of violence seemed more difficult than dealing with hardened criminals, said Kosloski.

“When you’re arresting professional criminals, they know the program—business as usual,” said Kosloski. “They don’t give you lip; you do your job they do theirs. It’s really civil even with murderers and robbers.”

Nonetheless, he accepted the job. Instead of hunting down criminals, he now is on the constant lookout for extra hockey sticks, skates and practicing grounds.

The Road to the LAPD

In high school, Kosloski wanted to work for the CIA or the FBI. While finishing his degree at the University of California, Irvine, he got an internship with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The internship took place at the World Trade Center in Los Angeles right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. By the time Kosloski completed his internship, a federal hiring freeze made it impossible to move straight from his internship to a job.

Out of work and sidelined from his goal of working for the government, Kosloski started working as a substitute teacher. While subbing, he maintained contact with his internship mentor, a special agent who told Kosloski to find job at a regular police department as experience for when the hiring freeze lifted.

Kosloski applied to the police academy and started another job as an assistant stage manager at Disneyland while he waited to hear back from the LAPD. Surrounded by lights, costumes and parades definitely wasn’t like law enforcement, but Kosloski started to get used to the fact that his future would revolve around entertainment. That didn’t last either.

“I was working at Disneyland on April 3 when I got a call from the police department saying ‘We want to offer you an academy date,’” Kosloski said. “It was a Thursday afternoon. They wanted me to start Monday and they gave me a day to decide.”

He ditched the colorful world of Disney for a black suit and a 5 a.m. academy appointment.

“Friday to Monday it was a whole different life,” Kosloski said.

‘Being Passionate about Your Work’

Life is still in constant flux for Kosloski. Outside of working for the LAPD, he participates in an intramural hockey team, plays in a cover band called Section 8 and travels as often as possible. He’s also in the middle of planning his next career adventure.

“When I came on [to the police force] I was thinking ‘I’ll do this for 10-15 years and see what comes next.’ I don’t know what it is, but now that I’m a little older, I want to start a bar and be the bartender.”

Kosloski laughs while sharing and says he’ll probably kick himself for giving up a job that allows him to play sports with children half of the week and pursue whatever he wants for the rest of it. Hard work isn’t a problem for Kosloski, but his personal time is valuable to him. Working so many different jobs helped put that into perspective.

“There’s a clear distinction between having your passions in life and being passionate about your work,” said Kosloski. “You can still go to work and passionate. For me, it also gives me the time and resources to do what I want with my life.”

Read more stories about the police department:
LAPD officers trade policing for mentoring with PAL program
Q&A: Hawthorne officer unites police department and community in fighting crime
Los Angeles boasts lowest homicide rate in 40 years

Graphic courtesy of LAPD

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LAPD officers trade policing for mentoring with PAL program

February 22, 2011 By 3 Comments


imageWith the largest housing projects west of the Mississippi and 120 recognized gangs within 10 square miles, the Southeast Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is working harder than ever to keep children away from the gang culture.

Officers started a local chapter of the Police Activities League (PAL) in Southeast Los Angeles to provide sports teams, field trips and mentoring opportunities for children exposed to violence and fear on a daily basis.

“The kids [in our division] have a lot of challenges, so it’s hard for them to go outside and play,” said police officer Scott Burkett, one of the officers in charge of the program. “There’s so many negative influences, that a lot of their parents don’t want them to go outside. They are afraid to go outside, to be drafted into a gang or become an accidental victim.”

Because of budget cuts to after-school programs, the activities league offers students a chance to participate in activities outside of school under the watchful eye of an adult. The kids have come to appreciate the support of police officers as their coaches and mentors, but it wasn’t instantaneous.

“Trust is a huge issue. They don’t trust cops so they didn’t trust us at first, but by working with the kids over time you see a change in how they come to open up and trust us, which is great to see. “ Burkett said. The officers of PAL agree that it also helps when they show up in jeans and a police jacket instead of uniforms with cuffs and a gun.

At College Ready Academy High School 11, a weekly hockey program gives the students something to look forward to after school. It also keeps them motivated in class.

“They bring their skates to school and they are so excited,” said Avery Seretan, a ninth grade teacher at College Ready Academy. “One of my students knows he won’t be able to go to hockey practice unless he does his work. Lately, he’s been really on top of his schoolwork so he doesn’t miss out.”

College Ready Academy also worked with PAL to provide incentives for academic improvement. The school recently conducted benchmark tests. Students were told that if their scores went up by 20 percent or more they would earn a field trip to Big Bear. The officers planned for 15 students. Thirty qualified.

Test scores are measurable proof that the league is helping students, but earning their trust and seeing how much the kids look forward to PAL activities are constant motivation, say the officers who facilitate the program. At weekly hockey practices, Officer Derek Kosloski said students channel all of their energy into learning the sport.

“Hockey can be a bit rough and emotions sometimes take over, but when the kids are with us they are perfectly well-behaved. It’s hard to believe it when I hear about some of the kids on our team being suspended for bringing knives to school or fighting,” Kosloski said.

Hockey is popular with the high school students and Kosloski hopes to have enough teams to start a Southeast league. None of the students had ever played hockey before, so lessons started from scratch and the kids soaked it up.

“A lot of them didn’t know how to hold the hockey stick, play left or right-handed and had never seen a live game before we took them to a Kings game,” Kosloski said. “The kids are so excited that when we stop practice they always want to play one more game. They are completely fired up.”

Activities like this are a preventative way for police officers to fight gang recruitment and violence. They see the program as a way of putting money into children before they become gang members instead of spending money and time arresting them later.

Students started participating in activities in the PAL program last December, but the Southeast chapter was officially formed in March 2010. Paperwork and technical issues such as being recognized as a non-profit organization and being recognized by the national PAL organization took almost nine months.

Money for trips like the one to Big Bear comes from fundraisers by the police station and support from businesses such as the Los Angeles Angels, Body Glove and the Salvation Army.

“It’s been a lot of networking and getting out there in the community. We’ve been really lucky, though” said Burkett. The effort is worth introducing the students to places outside the projects, he added.

The Southeast PAL program is still new but is slowly working its way into the community.

“They definitely play a big role here and our kids have really come to look up to them,” Seretan said.

Kosloski maintains that it’s all about teaching the kids with positive reinforcement so “when it comes time to make that tough decision, they’ll make the right one.”

Photos courtesy of Creative Commons

More stories about the LAPD in South Los Angeles:

Los Angeles boasts lowest homicide rate in 40 years

Los Angeles Police Department argues nonprofits are better than handouts on Skid Row

P.A.L. program provides afterschool alternatives

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OPINION: Clamping down on distracted driving is long overdue

October 6, 2010 By 1 Comment


While waiting at a red light the other day on Venice Boulevard, I turned my head for a moment and spotted the girl in the SUV next to me painting her nails. She was holding the steering wheel with her knees, the pot of nail polish in her left hand and the brush in her right. I wondered what “nail painting emergency” she was experiencing that meant she simply must paint her nails in the car rather than, say, wait until she was on solid ground and not operating a dangerous machine.

I can’t say I wasn’t annoyed. But I also can’t say that I honked my horn or shouted for her to stop and pay attention to the road. Instead, I rolled down the window and sighed loudly: a small act of defiance, born of forced resignation.

Nail painting girl is the symbol of a dizzying trend: drivers in L.A. doing anything other than concentrating on driving. The U.S. Department of Transportation has labeled distracted driving an “epidemic.” Last year, 5,474 people were killed and around 448, 000 injured because drivers simply weren’t paying attention. Yesterday began a county-wide zero-tolerance campaign in Los Angeles to target distracted drivers, and I can safely say that I’m very happy about it. I’m tired of being annoyed by selfish drivers putting lives at risk because they’re too “busy” to paint their nails at home. We’re all busy. Get over it.

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On the other hand, some drivers don’t seem busy at all. They seem to think that driving should be as relaxing an experience as possible for them. Last week I was stuck behind a cream Cadillac going 35 mph on the freeway. When I finally managed to pass her, a quick glance revealed that she was deep in conversation on her cell phone. Aside from the moving vehicle enveloping her body, she looked like she could have been sitting at home on the couch with a glass of wine, relaxing while chatting to an old friend. Meanwhile, traffic was piling up behind her.

The statistics show that 20 to 29-year-olds are most prone to distracted driving. Being part of that age group, I am not cool, apparently, for being such a driving prude. But the table above does also prove that my experience with “light truck” drivers is universal: How come they are able to lean down and wolf whistle into my open window, but are incapable of using their blinkers?

My level of annoyance with certain L.A. drivers began to grow after the cell phone ban took effect. I was relieved at first: why should you be on your cellphone while driving at all? Why not just wait the extra 20 minutes to make that call? I also happen to dislike receiving calls from someone in their car. The noise of the traffic is too loud to have a conversation, the driver is totally distracted, and I don’t want to be at fault when they go plowing into a divider. So, I was looking forward to sharing the road with phone-less drivers, our hands firmly on the wheel and our minds on the next turn.

But it was not to be. What happened instead was a new trend: drivers putting their calls on “speaker” and holding the phone a few inches from their faces. If anything, this method is more dangerous than before. And I am certainly more annoyed by it, since it seems that these people think what they’re doing is perfectly legal; they’ve figured out a loophole that only requires three inches of distance to put them in the clear.

Sadly (for them), this is not the case. I was happy to note yesterday that a cop pulled up alongside one of these “hands free” drivers and told her to get off the phone or he would give her a ticket. Funnily enough, she actually argued with him. In the end, I’m sure, the phone went into her lap until the next block.

I guess what really irks me about these drivers is that they think they’re exempt from distracted driving regulations, and from creating a safe environment for other drivers. They think they have some sort of “right” to use their driving time as a period in which to fulfill boring errands or entertain themselves. One woman a while ago was actually reading a magazine while driving. That’s just plain stupid. And I can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen someone eating a meal at the steering wheel, licking ketchup off their fingers and dropping pickles into their laps.

I know driving in L.A. is a pain, but it’s also a necessity. And everyone deserves to reach their destination safely — maybe even with a smile. I commend the drivers simply who turn on their favorite radio station and sing along — loudly — all the way home.

Annoyed by distracted drivers too? Or do you think the laws are too harsh? Tell us about it in the comments box below.

How do they do it? Driving 75mph While Reading a Novel (courtesy of YouTube):

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.

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South LA Podcast:  Police Chief Charlie Beck visits USC

March 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment


On Thursday, March 5, 2010, Police Chief Charlie Beck visited the USC Galen Center to speak to an audience of students, professors, business owners and community residents. He spoke about his methods of improving public safety in the area and his specific goals for the Los Angeles Police Department. He also spoke about how to improve the relationship between the USC Department of Public Safety and the police department.

Beck served as a police officer in South LA for many years and has served during the best and worst periods in the departments history. He recalled a time when the LAPD was known as an “occupying army” by many of the residents of South LA, but he also remembered the period of transition that improved the department’s standing within the community. During his speech, Beck addressed the LAPD’s past and present, but also explained what he hopes the future will bring.

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