Officers target problem areas

The Daily Pilot caught up with Newport Beach’s newest police chief, John Klein, and asked him a few questions about his first summer in command, the good and the bad of patrolling the city and his plans for keeping the streets safe. Klein was sworn in at the beginning of the summer to the post.

Klein lives in Mission Viejo with is wife, Karen, of 20 years and has five children. Three daughters, Rochelle, 28, who just graduated from law school; Kelley, 26, just returned from Kenya teaching kids English; Amy, 24, attending Point Loma to become a nurse; and two sons Paul, 12, plays football; and Ryan, 7, plays baseball.

Klein grew up in Sylmar and graduated from Sylmar High School. He then joined the army for three years and returned to the Los Angeles area. At 22 Klein came to Orange County and began working as a patrol officer for Newport Beach.

“The reason I came was because they were hiring. It was dumb luck on my part because it turned out to be one of the best things that I’ve ever done,” Klein said.

Q: How did you feel about your first summer in command of the Newport Beach Police Department?

A: The summer went very well. Part of the reason for that was we didn’t have any issues internally, in the department when I started. We did have some significant incidents in the city, three officers involved in a shooting and two injured on the job.

One was hit by a car while directing traffic and the other was a motorcycle officer involved in a collision. The levels of injury were much less significant than they could have been and one of the officers is already back at work and the other should be back soon.

The shooting is still under investigation. But from what I’ve seen of the reports the officers acted responsibly on the situation and I was proud of the officers’ performance.

It was not just how what happened in the field but how others on the team worked in the subsequent investigations and reached out into the community.

It has been a busier summer.

But it’s been a good, smooth transition. I have a lot of support. A lot of that is the command staff I have around me.

Q: What issues do you feel the department could work on to improve its relationship with the city in the future?

A: One of the things we are doing is stepping back to see what the department has done in the past. We have [hired] 38 new officers in the last three years and promoted many others to sergeant or above in that time. We don’t have the history we used to.

Whether we approach a problem in patrol be it after hours violations on the beach in Corona del Mar or alcohol establishments on the peninsula, we have to look at more than just how to handle a specific call and work with the community.

We provide a very large level of service to the community and need to continue to do that to be successful with the residents. On the peninsula we have to work with both the bar owners and the residents.

Our biggest areas for after-hours beach violations right now would be the peninsula near the Wedge and Corona del Mar beaches. They’re more residential but people still find their ways out there.

We had several meetings with residents to find out where their concerns are. We have two officers on foot patrol in Corona del Mar. We also installed beach cameras in the more isolated beach areas down in Little Corona. On foot it can take a half hour to get to some of those areas that need our attention. This way the officers can see right away what is going on.

Over the course of the summer we’ve written more than 500 tickets, most of them for being on the beach after hours. But it’s more than just being on the beach after hours, other crimes occur, car burglaries. The crime is usually low over there but does lead to a lower quality of life [when left unattended.]

The biggest thing I need from the community is if they see anything, that’s an issue to call and we will respond out there.

Q: How are you dealing with alcohol enforcement in the city?

A: We have 330-plus alcohol establishments that sell alcohol and a lot of people come to Newport Beach to patronize those establishments.

One occasion they may spill out and disrupt the neighborhoods but we are working with code enforcement and the neighbors to find the best solution.

We don’t want the establishments to leave town but we do want to find a way that they can work together and coexist.

We’ve gone into a lot of them, most particularly on the peninsula and found some violations, some serve underage people and some overcrowded.

Our city is number one in the state for cities with a 50,000 to 100,000 population in alcohol related injury collisions.

We want to bring everyone to the table to find the best solution and most have been very cooperative. We bring owners and provide them with training on how to spot false ID’s and underage customers.

Q: What areas have you seen the department excel in over the last few months?

A: I’ve been very proud of the way the department as a whole has evaluated the issues that have come up. We’ve quickly gotten back to problem-solving rather than just responding to calls.

What I want to do is put a face to the department, have our employees at all levels to reach out to the community. Some get calls on their days off.

We don’t want frustrations to build up over time.

Internally with the turnover we’ve experienced in the last few years we will continue to have promotional opportunities.

We’ve reinstituted a leadership training program that starts in October. The goal is to provide some of the officers and civilian personnel with the preparations because they will become leaders of the department in the future.

The class is six months long and meets once a month for three hours. The class covers different ways of working with the community and promotions preparation.

We did this back in 1998 and it was very successful for a number of officer who are now sergeants. It’s helpful and makes you look at things different. It broadens you field of vision.