Police getting a better beat on streets

Marisa O’Neil

When an elderly Costa Mesa resident called the Police Department to

complain he hadn’t seen a police officer on his street in years,

Chief John Hensley took down the man’s address and sent the local

beat cop to his door the next day.

“I wanted to put a face on the police officer for him,” Hensley

said. “I want to go back to the day when people knew who their local

beat cop was.”

Since Hensley took over the department last March, he has focused

on that customer-service approach to law enforcement and tried to

make the officers more visible in the community.

Like many other police departments, Costa Mesa has been gradually

shifting to what’s known as community-oriented policing. But over the

past year, Hensley has broadened its scope from something done by

only a few officers to an approach he hopes every officer will take.

Community policing, in many ways, is a throwback to the early

days, when officers patrolled their beats on foot, got to know the

local residents and shopkeepers by name and listened carefully to

their concerns about problems in the neighborhoods.

Police departments shifted from that approach with the advent of

patrol cars and radios, often distancing themselves from the very

people they were to protect. But now more police chiefs, such as

Hensley, are bringing back some aspects of the earlier approach with

community-oriented policing.

That approach was so important to Hensley that he asked the City

Council to endorse the approach, which it did in a proclamation.

Many chiefs on

these beats

Since then, the department has been integrating new programs into

its crime fighting and prevention, as well as starting new ones. One

of those changes is assigning an officer to the same shift in the

same beat area to give the officer “ownership” of the beat.

They’re encouraged to get out and walk the beat, whenever

possible, to talk to residents and business owners and to

troubleshoot problems.

“Each officer is chief of police of his own beat,” Hensley said.

The approach seems to be making a difference in the quality of

life issues, like stolen shopping carts, illegal street vendors and

transients, many officials and residents say.

“Feedback has been good,” Mayor Gary Monahan said. “People enjoy

getting to know the police. And the better relationships people have

with the police, the more often they call police and have safer

neighborhoods.”

Hensley was first exposed to community policing when he was a

lieutenant for the Manhattan Beach Police Department. He used it

extensively when he served as chief in Cypress.

It works well in Costa Mesa, he said, because the city is

generally safe to begin with. People worry more about quality-of-life

issues than major crimes.

“When I see people in the community, they talk to me about parking

issues, day laborers or gang members,” he said. “Rarely do people

mention robbery or burglary.”

That doesn’t mean the Police Department ignores those crimes, he

said.

But rather than rushing from one call to the next, officers take

the time to listen to people and find out the reasons behind the

problems.

“I’ve seen a big change in community issues,” Costa Mesa resident

Mike Berry said. “They’re not out there arresting bank robbers and

the Lindbergh kidnapper, but they’re out there enforcing the

ticky-tack stuff that’s not fun but needs to be done.”

Berry, who has been an outspoken critic of the department in the

past, said he’s noticed a difference in the past year.

In the past, he said, officers might dismiss calls to dispatch as

unimportant or low priority.

“They would try and talk us out of it,” he said. “Now they take

the call and respond or don’t respond, but they don’t try and talk us

out of it.”

Not totally new

on the streets

Community policing isn’t a new approach in Costa Mesa. Under

former Police Chief David Snowden, the department had what’s called a

Problem-Oriented Policing program. Each of the city’s three areas had

an officer assigned who would take on the bigger, more time-consuming

projects typical of community policing.

Now, with the “Community Oriented Policing Problem” solving

philosophy, each officer is expected to function as a

problem-oriented policing officer.

“This chief has really made it everyone’s responsibility,” said

officer John Gates, who had served as a problem-oriented police

officer. “He has given us the training and encouragement and said

this is how we’re going to do police work, like it or not. I think in

the end we solve a lot more of the city’s problems because every

officer [has that approach].”

That includes new computer software developed while Hensley was

chief in Cypress. All officers will soon have the new software, which

allows officers to track problems and have logs of activity taken so

other officers can offer suggestions.

Sometimes, problem solving has little to do with crime fighting,

Gates said.

For example, he said, one apartment building was having problems

with a group of teenagers being loud and unruly and tossing trash on

neighboring yards. When police showed up, they’d run into an

apartment and hide -- something that would end the call for officers

taking a traditional approach.

But some conversations with neighbors, a call to the apartment

manager and then to the children’s parents stopped the problem and

stopped officers from having to go to the same address over and over

again.

Not always an easy sell

Selling community policing to officers, many of whom got into law

enforcement for the thrill and not for what they may view as social

work, is a challenge, Hensley admitted.

“I don’t have 100% buy-in,” he said. “I didn’t expect it. But I do

have a cadre of individuals who see the benefits and they’re selling

it to the rest of the department.”

Some officers, used to being judged by the number of arrests they

made or tickets they wrote, worried that taking extra time on calls

would mean those numbers would go down, Gates said.

Now they’re realizing that their new chief is more concerned with

problem-solving than statistics.

The approach seems to be working and seems to be lowering crime in

the city, Hensley said.

The department is seeing more calls, Berry said, but it’s more a

reflection of residents’ willingness to call the police than an

increase in crime.

“I’ve been very happy with the progress to date, but we’re not

finished,” Hensley said.

He intends to get special enforcement officers and detectives

involved, too. And as more officers get used to the approach, he

wants to evaluate what works and what doesn’t.

And, he said, he wants to hear from the community.

“Sometimes [police] think we know everything and know what’s going

on in your neighborhoods, and we don’t,” he said. “You do.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.