It's The Cops! — September 28th at WVRC
President Elect CHRIS BRADFORD called us to order, in place of Prexy MIKE, who apparently had a better offer. PP DAVE WHITEHEAD led the Pledge, assisted by words of encouragement from SEAN McMILLAN and others. The team of LENNY FRIEDMAN and RICK CULLEN enabled us to do My Country Tis of Thee. PP MIKE NEWMAN gave the Invocation, first inviting us to sit. He began with some random thoughts, pointing out that world religions universally teach about ways to a better world.
This is what Rotary also does, of course. He asked the Lord’s blessing to help us to use the tools of Rotary and our own religion to make the world better, noting that our educational emphasis helps in this direction. Good ideas, MIKE – thanks.
We had no Visiting Rotarians, but LENNY had his special guest, SUNNY – who points out that her hair is coming back, and she will keep it short henceforth. Announcements followed – first among them being the Paul Harris Celebration on November 4th. This will be at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, and we were reminded to get those raffle ticket stubs in posthaste (that means, get off the dime!). PP STEVE DAY is the person to see.
June 17th to the 20th is the Rotary International Convention is Salt Lake City, and plans are underway to gather those who are going for a special program while there.
This past Sunday we celebrated SEVENTY YEARS of Service by our Rotary Auxiliary. The party was at Lawry’s and we had the whole place to ourselves. Auxiliary President Janice Koyama presided, with Prexy MIKE providing the opening Toast. Among those who helped put this all together were PAT ANDERSON, PEGGY BLOOMFIELD, MARJORIE DOWNIE, SHIRLEY MORE, ELOISE SISKEL and MARIANNE WANGLIN. Their hard work showed – it came off beautifully. The Program was “70 Years of Fashion” staged by Goodwill Industries Volunteer Services, and underwritten by ROZ and PP DON NELSON. The clothes were fabulous and they were followed by the presentation of The Golden Legends Honorees, seven ladies each of whom had fifty years of service in our Auxiliary. HELEN BEASOM, CAROL COLLINS, MARJORIE DOWNIE, CINDY LUSK, PETIE HENKES, CAROL PENNELL and AVA PEPLOW were all present, and warmly applauded. We ended up following the lead of PP STEVE SCHERER, PP JIM COLLINS, and PP BOB WESSLING in a rendition of Let Service Turn the Wheel, as written by former member JOHN HOAG. With over ninety in attendance, it was indeed, One For The Book – we all loved it!
Auxiliary 70th Anniversary Celebration
PEGGY BLOOMFIELD had donated three tickets, including parking, for the Los Angeles Symphony for this Sunday, October lst. ELLIOTT TURNER started the bidding, but eventually was overcome by BOB THOM, who offered $175. Along came TONY MARRONE, with FOUR tickets to the UCLA-Stanford game this weekend. ELLIOTT tried again, and this time won the auction for $125.00 Note, this auction income goes to our Foundation, so they are fully deductible!
PDG ANDY ANDERSON introduced our Speaker, who is also one of our members – CAROL ABORN KHOURY. Carol joined LAPD in 1983, and has risen rapidly. She was promoted to Captain in 2003, and came to WLA in 2005. She is the Area Commanding Officer and thus is in charge of all of West Los Angeles Police activity except Traffic (probably a good one to not be responsible for…).
Carol began by pointing out how LAPD has changed their focus on Analysis and Time-Of-Response to crime over these last ten years. They have been very successful in reducing crime – so even nearby Police Departments have taken notice. LA now has the second lowest crime rate of big cities – and NY, which is # one, has twice as many police officers per capita as we do. She brought along several Confidential Reports, from which she could quote but they were still Classified.
Every Tuesday their area has a Crime Control Meeting, looking at crime for the prior week and for the just-completed weekend. The Major Crimes are considered to be homicide, rape, burgulary and robbery – the difference between these last two being that burgulary is when the suspect enters a structure and takes property, while robbery is when something is taken from a person by force or threat. For this year, there have been three homicides – in our area covering 64 square miles! One of the victims was a student at Hamilton High School, which is alarming to many people. Aggravated Assault usually occurs during a dispute, and gangs are often involved.
Most robberies occur on the street, called targets of opportunity – and what is most often taken are cell phones, Ipods, wallets and money. Being aware of what is going on around you is the best defense against becoming a victim. In their investigations, they try to establish an M.O., since such patterns often lead them to an arrest. WLA has the 2nd lowest number of car thefts in the City. One thing we should all be aware of – do NOT leave things in your car that invite theft! Keep those items in your trunk, and thus under cover.
One of her books that she brought along has a page for each category of major crime, with each event detailed over the previous four weeks. This provides Carol with recent history, and helps to determine deployment in the immediate future. Results have been excellent – in 2005, crime was down 13%, and this year so far, 11%. Another series of meetings is between Areas, plus good cooperation with local non-LA jurisdictions.
Her primary concern is lack of resources. They don’t have sufficient personnel right now, and they expect a major flood of retirements in the coming year. So it will be at least two years before the number of police increases. They are having difficulty hiring, since the available pool of those interested in police work is not large – and the starting salary of about $50K isn’t a big incentive. They will rely on technology to help – sheets were passed out showing cars equipped with a camera to scan licenses – up to 1000 per hour, compared to perhaps 100 if done manually. Video cameras and microphones help. They have a new photo ID system that identifies suspects as they are being questioned.
Q&A CURT SMITH asked about the use of microphones to triangulate gunshots, but Carol wasn’t sure if they were deployed presently. Early release is currently a serious problem, since many of those continue their criminal activity as soon as they are released.
MIKE YOUSEM – In my area near Pico and National, we have a constant problem with grafitti. We paint it over, and it comes right back .Carol pointed out that the first thing to do is report it, before you paint it over – this helps the police track what may be a pattern and thus they can be on the lookout for repeaters. PDG BILL GOODWYN asked for a definition of Hillside, and what area do you cover? Hillside is basically the area north of Sunset, where the expensive homes are. The WLA area starts at Mullholland, goes west, and starts at the beach and goes east to Beverly Hills. I asked for numbers. There are about 200 police personnel in the area, with almost 100 on patrol, and about 40 as detectives.RAY ZICKFELD asked how they coordinate with other police jurisdictions.
They depends on what the issue is. PP STEVE SCHERER – Are there specific targets for terrorism in WLA? No, we have none currently.
Carol Khoury, thank you for a most interesting and helpful update on our local police.
