A Friend in Blue : Officer’s role at library helps the LAPD forge partnerships with young citizens ‘so they know people care about them.’ : HEARTS OF THE CITY / Where dilemmas are aired and unsung heros and resiliency are celebrated.

Los Angeles Police Officer Celia Komathy was about to introduce her special guest to the youngsters at the Leon H. Washington Memorial-Vernon Library when the facility’s director appeared at the meeting room door with an urgent problem.

“We have two lost children out here crying. The older one says their mother left them and she doesn’t know their phone number,” Director Rosetta Warren reported anxiously.

“Let’s bring them in here,” replied a sympathetic but unruffled Komathy. “Maybe some of these kids will recognize them and I can take them home.”

A moment later, the two little girls, teary-eyed but quieted, were nestled against Komathy, 29, who has two young daughters of her own. They listened to the guest, Nigerian folklorist Onochie Chukwurah, as he told stories and sang songs to the three dozen or so school-age youngsters who spend their Tuesday afternoons at the branch library with Komathy.

When library workers were finally able to track down the youngsters’ parents, Komathy slipped out of the meeting room to talk to them. Then she returned in time to join Chukwurah and the older youngsters in a folk dance.

It’s literally all in a day’s work for Komathy, a five-year LAPD veteran. She and Officers Danny Martinez and Robert Young spend their shifts at community centers and other sites throughout the Newton Division’s South-Central Los Angeles territory as part of the department’s efforts to bring community-based policing to some of the city’s meanest streets.

The emphasis is on forming partnerships with residents and merchants, and that includes spending time with youngsters “so they know people care about them,” Komathy said.

Her after-school program at the library is a blend of entertainment and education. Fluent in Spanish, she entices youngsters with field trips, arts and crafts, holiday parties (the bakery owner next door sells Komathy cakes at a discount) and prizes for attendance.

The sessions provide a safe place for children to congregate, while Komathy’s regular contact with them enables her to squeeze in talks about safety, gangs, drugs, AIDS and conflict resolution. She befriends children who need attention and a positive role model.

Outside, hookers ply their trade on the corner of 45th Street and Central Avenue and garbage clutters the alley behind the library. Graffiti is everywhere.

Komathy said she tries to help youngsters and their families cope with a dangerous environment--and to let kids know they can make choices in their lives.

“I grew up in poverty. I can relate to these kids. If I can make it, so can they,” Komathy said.

There are poignant, even sobering moments--the child who had never tasted a chocolate bunny until he came to Komathy’s Easter party, the 14-year-old who was afraid to tell her parents she was pregnant, the families seeking the officer’s help with their domestic problems because they don’t know where else to turn.

But Komathy seems in little danger of burning out.

“This is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” she said one day as she prepared to give two families a ride home from the library.

Opening the trunk of her squad car, she pulled out snapshots of a recent community arts picnic she and her partners had organized. Local merchants donated food for 1,000.

“Whatever this community has, it gives,” she said.

Sometimes the program pays off in other ways too. Residents reluctant to go to a police station often become the eyes and ears of the officers they have come to know at community sites.

“An elderly woman found a gun somebody had tossed into her flower bed and turned it in to one of my partners. She said she was afraid to be seen with a gun on her way to the police station, but since she knew this officer, she gave it to her,” Komathy recalled.

Berlincia, a fourth-grader at nearby Hooper Avenue School, dropped in on Komathy’s program around Christmastime last year and has been a regular ever since.

The 9-year-old now spends every weekday afternoon at the library, doing homework, using the computers or reading. On Tuesdays, however, she leaves the stacks of books and the new homework center to join Komathy in the little meeting room.

“I love it,” Berlincia said about Komathy’s program. “It keeps us off the streets, and we get to do a lot of things. . . . Officer Komathy’s real nice. She helps us with all of our problems.”

“And,” added her friend Shae, 14, who had just become enchanted with the Nigerian storyteller, “she has good guests too!”

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The Beat

Today’s focus is a Los Angeles Police Department community outreach program for youngsters at the Leon H. Washington Memorial- Venon branch of the Los Angeles Library.

Want to learn more or help the program? Contact the library at (213) 234- 9106