West Hollywood Sheriff’s Command Changes Hands

Capt. James Cook, who commanded the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station in West Hollywood for the past two years, has been transferred, leaving the city with dramatic reductions in crime and lingering questions about police treatment of homosexuals and the homeless.

Cook, 49, a 24-year veteran, is assuming command of the newly formed Juvenile Investigative Bureau, a detective division responsible for the investigation of child-abuse cases and monitoring of all Juvenile Court cases.

Cook’s replacement is Capt. Mark Squiers, 42, a 20-year veteran who most recently commanded the Sheriff’s Department’s Malibu station. Squiers, who has also run the department’s training academy, worked as a patrol deputy in West Hollywood in the late 1960s.

Squiers inherits a formidable police command in West Hollywood, a 1.9-square-mile, densely populated urban village. Police estimate that each day, West Hollywood’s resident population of 37,000 more than doubles as visitors, shoppers, workers--and career criminals--clog the city’s commercial districts and residential neighborhoods.

Active in Community

Cook’s departure came as a surprise to many community activists, who had grown accustomed to his presence during West Hollywood’s turbulent first two years of existence. “He’s had a very active role in this community,” said Ruth Williams, an activist who has worked closely with the Sheriff’s Department. “He’s shown a lot of sensitivity in a place that can get very controversial. We’re going to miss him.”

Cook won high marks from community leaders for increasing police visibility in the area and for policies that led to an 11% drop in the rate of major crime over the past year (the major crime rate has dropped another 6% over the past four months, Cook noted).

“The figures don’t lie,” City Councilman John Heilman said. “Crime is decreasing, and Jim had a lot to do with it. The general perception in the community is that the Sheriff’s Department is doing a good job.”

Cook also played a large role in a series of disputes between the Sheriff’s Department and City Council members and other city officials over police relations with the gay community and, most recently, with the homeless.

“Basically, Jim reported the official Sheriff’s Department line when there were disagreements,” Mayor Stephen Schulte said. “We just want to be certain that we get a Sheriff’s Department that tailors its policies to fit the needs of this city.”

Retained by Contract

Cook had run the West Hollywood station since April, 1984. At that time, the county provided law enforcement to the area, then an unincorporated territory. After the city’s incorporation in November, 1984, the newly elected City Council decided to retain the Sheriff’s Department by contract instead of forming its own police force.

“There have been enormous changes in this city and you constantly find yourself readjusting,” Cook said, adding that the creation of several new city commissions in the coming months--including a Public Safety Commission--will force Squiers, too, to adapt.

The most helpful change, Cook said, was the City Council’s decision to pay for an expansion of the staff at his station. Since July, 1985, aided by an annual city budget allocation of more than $7 million, Cook has been able to increase the number of deputies from 90 to 120. “With more deputies we’ve been able to strengthen crime deterrence and prevention,” he said.

City officials say he has used his new officers well, heightening the deputies’ visibility by adding foot patrols in high-crime areas and getting more squad cars on the streets during each shift. Cook also became a popular figure among community groups, persuading residents to increase their participation in Neighborhood Watch programs. The number of Neighborhood Watch groups has grown from eight to 38 over the past two years.

Faster Response

“People are still concerned about the level of crime, but I think there’s a perception that the deputies are out there,” Heilman said. “They’ve been responding faster to crimes and their cars are seen around more often. That’s reassuring to people.”

Cook said that by fielding one-man patrol cars instead of two-man cars, he was able to increase the number of cars on the street from five or six each shift to as many as 14. “We’re not simply throwing dollars at the problems,” he said. “We’ve been using our resources well.”

As the deputies’ presence has been heightened, so have their contacts with city residents and visitors. Each month, Cook estimated, West Hollywood deputies are involved in 4,000 official contacts with the public (contacts which result in arrests or citations) and 5,000 other contacts.

But along with the increased contacts have come complaints from some gay leaders about police harassment of homosexuals. The complaints prompted the City Council earlier this year to provide funds for a sensitivity training program for sheriff’s deputies.

Deputies Transferred

City officials also say that several deputies who were repeatedly involved in cases that provoked complaints of harassment were quietly transferred out of the West Hollywood station.

“We have worked very closely with the gay community,” Cook said. “Over the last six months we have seen a lessening of the number of complaints, from about five or six a month to about one or two. We feel the problem is abating. And I think that a rate of two complaints a month, or even six, is a marvelous record when you look at the numbers of our contacts with the public.”

Some gay leaders, though, among them Mayor Schulte, have continued to express concern about the number of harassment complaints. Schulte and other activists also hold out hope that the Sheriff’s Department might eventually recruit gay deputies to the West Hollywood station--a commitment that sheriff’s officials declined to make last year.

“I’m still troubled by the level of complaints we’re getting,” Schulte said, adding: “I’ll admit, though, that I heard a lot more complaints from the gay community six months ago than I’m hearing today.”

City Employee Arrested

In the past month, however, a new furor has overshadowed fading concern about relations between gays and the Sheriff’s Department. The controversial arrest of a city employee by a sheriff’s deputy exposed a dispute within city government over how to treat the city’s growing homeless population.

On Oct. 16, a deputy arrested Rosemarie Pegueros-Lev, coordinator of the city’s Homeless Project, for interfering with the arrest of a transient suspected of public intoxication. Pegueros-Lev has since been arraigned on one misdemeanor count of interfering with a police officer and has pleaded not guilty.

City officials say that the Homeless Project’s three-member staff has been at odds with deputies over treatment of transients. Cook has insisted that his deputies have a responsibility to monitor transients who wander city streets and gather in the city’s two parks, West Hollywood Park and Plummer Park.

But Carol Watson, Pegueros-Lev’s attorney, said that Homeless Project workers have amassed evidence of what they perceived as police harassment of transients. “I’m concerned that we’re seeing a pattern of abuse,” she said.

Abuse Claimed

Watson said the Homeless Project staff has documented incidents in which deputies forced transients to place their hands on heated car hoods. On other occasions, transients detained at the West Hollywood station were denied meals, Watson said.

Although Cook declined to discuss details of the incidents, he recently said the “community needs to realize that there is a lot of crime in the parks. We will go where the crime is and arrest the perpetrators, whoever they are.”

City officials said that deputies are worried that the Homeless Project workers have been attracting more transients to West Hollywood by allowing them to use a city office in West Hollywood Park as a mail drop and aiding them in obtaining food, shelter and showers.

Councilwoman Helen Albert, a strong supporter of the Homeless Project, has been critical of Cook’s efforts to crack down on transients. “The homeless are a fact of life and it is our job to help them,” Albert said, adding: “I would hope that the new captain will be more cooperative.”

Other council members have taken a more neutral position on the dispute. The council voted earlier this month to support a recommendation by an internal city task force to look into the matter and report back by January.

Despite Albert’s hope that Squiers might take a different tack on the homeless question, other officials expect him to pursue the course set by Cook.

“I think Jim was very responsive in his dealing with the council,” Heilman said. “What we forget sometimes is that the station commander reflects the department’s policies. I don’t think that’s going to change.”