Police to Bolster Patrols in Hollywood to Curb Gang Cruising

Responding to a sharp increase in crime in Hollywood, Los Angeles police on Tuesday announced the deployment of a special 70-officer task force to control cruising by gang members on its famous boulevards.

In addition, eight officers and one sergeant will be assigned to foot patrols in a high-crime area near Yucca Street and Wilcox Avenue on an almost around-the-clock basis, police said at a news conference held at Hollywood Division headquarters.

“The (crime) problem is unusual,” said Deputy Police Chief Glenn Levant, “so it called for unusual measures to get it under control.”

The “Cruiser Task Force” will be made up of Police Department squad car, bike and foot patrol officers, city traffic officers, gang specialists and juvenile narcotics specialists. Levant also announced that special teams of uniformed off-duty motorcycle officers will direct traffic at the Hollywood Bowl area on weekend nights to prevent the concert traffic flow “from further contributing to the cruising problem on Hollywood Boulevard.”

Levant, appointed in February to oversee Hollywood and the three other Westside police divisions, said later in an interview that he has asked police headquarters for even more officers to help fight the crime problem.

Meanwhile, Councilman Michael Woo, who represents Hollywood, introduced a motion Tuesday asking for $12,800 to improve the anti-cruising enforcement effort in the movie capital, in addition to the $50,000 in emergency funds already approved last month for extra Department of Transportation barricades and traffic police.

Levant said Police Department officials called the news conference to respond to a report in The Times about the sharp rise in crime in Hollywood. Police statistics show that there has been a 16% increase in serious crimes and a 50% rise in murders in the last six months compared to last year, leading to a situation that one police gang specialist described as “out of control.”

Levant said police have recently been more aggressive in cracking down on cruisers and teen-agers who are on the streets past the 10 p.m. curfew. Gang members in increasing numbers have been mingling with carloads of youths who traditionally cruise parts of Hollywood and Sunset boulevards on weekend nights.

Levant conceded that the cruising has created “a very dangerous situation” in which innocent victims are being thrust into the middle of gang warfare.

“There is a definite problem out there, the problem in cruising “ Levant said. “We have begun to address the problem and it has begun to dissipate.”

Levant said police started to implement the anti-cruising task force as early as five weeks ago, but kept the operation under wraps until they could determine if it was effective and they could announce some results. He said the department had been planning to officially unveil the task force Thursday, and said it already has helped police make 327 arrests, issue more than 2,000 equipment and moving violations and impound 266 cruiser cars.

As a result, there have been “no gang homicides attendant to the cruising problem” in the last few weeks, Levant said. “We think that’s very, very significant.”

Night watch commander Tim Anderson described the task force as an informal deployment of officers already stationed in the area and said rank-and-file officers are awaiting details. “I’m sure they have a plan, but it hasn’t been shared with anyone on patrol.”

Some community members were skeptical about the Police Department’s pledges to get the crime wave under control.

‘I didn’t know about the task force,” said Joseph Shea, a leader of the Ivar Hawks Neighborhood Watch group, who was asked by police to attend the news conference to represent local crime fighters working with authorities. “I don’t think there was a task force until yesterday,” when the news report called attention to the problem.

Nevertheless, Shea said, some increased police activity has been observed recently, and the crime-fighting measures will be welcome.

“We never deserved this vast sea of cruisers descending on our streets every Friday and Saturday,” Shea said.

Some members of the Hollywood Sentinels, the area’s oldest and largest neighborhood crime-fighting group, crashed the news conference and said they’ve already heard such promises.

“I am sick and tired of hearing a lot of these things and a lot of these excuses,” said Virginia Charon, the group’s 71-year-old founder.

Sentinel member Robert Burton said the task force will only push more gang members and cruisers off Hollywood and Sunset boulevards and onto residential streets.