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02-02-1976 - Regular Meeting - MinutesMINUTES OF ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF CITY COUNCIL CITY OF WEST COVINA, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 2, 1976. The adjourned regular meeting of the City Council called to order . at 7:32 P.M. in the West Covina Council Chambers by Mayor Ken Chappell. The Pledge of Allegiance was given. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Chappell; Councilmen: Shearer, Miller, Browne, Tice CJ Others Present: Leonard Eliot, City Manager Pro tem Michael Miller, Acting Public Serv. Dir., Allen Sill, Police Chief Craig Meacham, Deputy Police Chief Ross Bonham, Administrative Ass't. Kevin Northcraft, Administrative Ass't. Bill Freemon, Staff Reporter — S.G.V.D.T. Mayor Chappell stated due to the small audience attendance the meeting would be transferred to the City Manager's Conference Room. City Council meeting reconvened at 7:39 P.M. DISCUSSION WITH POLICE DEPARTMENT ON IDEAS TO HELP REDUCE CRIME WITHIN THE CITY ings Chief Sill came.up crime and reduce it in this meeting tonight. Mayor Chappell: Councilman Browne and myself have been meet— ing with various staff people and the City Manager and from these meetings it appeared that a Study Session .with Council was in order. At these meet — with some ideas on how to perhaps combat our community. So this is the reason for Allen Sill, Police Chief I appreciate the opportunity for this 1444 W. Garvey Avenue Study Session to discuss with you some West Covina of the problems relating to crime in our City. As you know, it is difficult to project into the future without first looking back at where you have been so we have some charts for your viewing which shows what has been happening in our City. (Summarized) Chart — Part I Crimes, that have occurred in the City from 1970 to 1975: Homicide, Rape, Robbery, Burglary, Assault w/deadly weapon, Larceny over $50., Grand Theft Auto. These are the crimes which are used by the FBI and determine really the crime health of. a City. These are the seven most reported crimes. In West Covina in 1970 there were 2410 reported crimes; 1971 — 2862; 1972 — 2872; 1973 — 3601; 1974 — 4105; and 1975 — 3996. In 1975 there was a small reduction amounting to about 3% which we are very pleased with because the last FBI report which carried the United States from January through September in cities of our size showed an increase of 12%. So we are pleased we are showing a reduction and we hope it is from good police work and good citizen cooperation. Chart — Part II Crimes — (All other • crimes) Malicious Mischief, Liquor Law Violations, Child Neglect, Weapons Laws, Drunk Driving. It is generally felt that not all crimes are reported because the people in the communities perhaps feel the loss wasn't very great — I could call but I don't know a thing about who took these things so I won't bother reporting it, or it may be because these type of crimes are the lessor type crimes. • • ADJ. CITY COUNCIL MEETING Page Two PRESENTATION BY POLICED EPT. 2/2/76 Chart - Calling For Services - such as police being called to somebody's home perhaps for keeping the peace, quieting a barking dog, settling some neighborhood problem all of which demand the officer's time. We hopefully feel these calls are in direct relationship to the communty's feeling of the law enforcement agency - so we feel it is good they call for -this kind"of service. -.'in 1970 we received 26,748 calls, steadily increasing each year and in 1975 we received 48,000 calls or a 79.4% increase. Chart - Arrests - not including traffic citations. 1970 - 2,597 arrests steadily increasing to 1975 - 4,600 arrests or. 77.1% increase. the Chart - Manpower - 1974: 10 sworn personnel including 41 police officers., 11 detectives; 1971 - 77- sworn personnel including 43 police officers,'ll detectives; 1972 - 78 sworn personnel, including 44 police officers, 11 de- tectives; 1973 - 78 (same distribution); 1974 - 80 sworn personnel (one,position unfilled), 46 police officers, 11 detec- tives; 1975 - 79 sworn personnel, 46 police officers, 11 detectives. (Explained in further detail that generally all positions are never filled due to. someone retiring, disability, leaving a position, etc.) Chart - Property Loss - 1970 - 951M steadily increasing to 1975=-1593M. 'We have noted a drop off in bu'rgl.aries but the loss in burglaries is greater. We feel more burglari.es'are.now being committed by the professionals. Chart - Detective Cases - 1970 - 5289 with a steady increase t.o 1975 with 7585, where as manpower in detectives remains the'same. The job of the detective is time consuming and because of the number of cases and the inadequate number of detectives many such cases go unsolved. None of the figures shown include carry overs from year to year. Explained in further detail some of the various crimes - how many were committed - how they were handled, pointing out the increase in all types of crimes. In Calls for Services, it is interesting to note on fire follow ups which includes rescue.calls, we are also seeing an increase, perhaps because the paramedics are in action and people are more aware of the availability of this service. Warrants are on the increase, special services are going up and up, which includes robbery and burglary alarms, assistance to citizens, 3,451 citizens assist in 1975; reports Of suspicious persons - 13,800 calls; keep the peace - 5,971; responses to false burglaryor robbery calls - 1,608. Those are really all legitimate calls for a police officer but it does take the officer away from possibly more important types of things and these calls do take 2 cars out of service on each such call. As far as manpower, several years ago we went into the 10 plan, which means that the officers are on duty 10 hours a day, 4 da s a week. (Chrt shown explaining how the 10 plan operates. (Chart also shown indicating number of police officers per 1000 population.and stated in West Covina we have kept very close to one officer per 1000 population from 1970 to 1975.) • The reason we are here this evening is to talk about some of the things that can be done and are being done to help cut down on crime. The goals of any Crime Prevention Program is to reduce the amount of crime and improve the police community relations. There isn't any problem, I don't believe, in the realm of criminal justice that couldn't almost completely - 2 - • L� • ADJ. CITY COUNCIL MEETING Page Three PRESENTATION BY POLICE DEPT. 2/2/76 be resolved by -an alert citizenry. Organized law enforcement is fairly new - it was in 1840 when first organized. Until that period it was done by various citizens (explained). The job of maintaining the peace and keeping crime down in any community is really basically the job of the citizenry. One of the things we have to remember is the job of community protection really rests with the people. Crime is not police oriented, it is social oriented; the police are there to maintain peace. Over the years we have seen the drawing away of the citizenry. I think it is time for the citizens of a community to help their law enforcement agency reduce crime and work together. We are ready to do that kind of work which requires taking barricaded suspects out of a building - - that we cannot expect the ordinary citizen to do, but in most other areas we are going to need more coopera- tion from the citizens. In the past we have done a number of programs in this City, such as Safety Town, which was first originated by the Eastland Shopping Center and then we had an opportunity to get a grant and take it around from school to school, and I think you will find that the number of children involved in accidents is very low and .this I think is directly related to the showing of Safety Town to the children. We have an Officer Dan Program. Our community relations officer goes out to the third graders each year and basically tells them how law enforcement got started and what is expected of them, etc., and this is all done to hopefully counteract the things parents say to their children along the lines of - if you don't be good we will call the policeman, etc. etc. We have been involved with the Cop on Campus Program and had to abandon that because of lack of personnel. The officer went on campus and talked to the students at the lunch hour. We are continuing to conduct Child Molestation Programs in which we make the young children aware on what to do if they are approached or molested and what they can do about it. We have a film that shows the young child on how to go from school to home and report in to his parent. We have recently become involved in the Mid Valley Mental Health Clinic. Prior to this we had difficulty in telling children's parents where they could take their child for counselling. Mid Valley provides this service now to both children and parents and does it almost immediately. We have also been able to get a County Probation Officer assigned to the Station which has helped us tremendously in handling young people. When they are brought in he can review their case and guide us in handling it. Since 1972 we have computerized our Criminal Statistics so we could get our reports readily. (Explained how this is carried out and how it helps.) Along this same line because we now have this capability we reanalyze the entire city constantly with regard to the placing of man- power, so we can constantly keep in balance the workload of the entire force in the city. We try to balance the workload out so it is equalized. We have had Rape Trauma Clinics and we have a film that will be shown in the Council Chambers on February 24, which is an excellent film and.should be viewed by both men and women. The young man involved in this program is simply terrific. He has analyzed rapes and has some very good suggestions on what women can do if faced with that particular problem. - 3 - • L� • CITY.COUNCIL - ADJ. MEETING PRESENTATION BY POLICE DEPT. Page Four 2/2/76 We have also established a Planning Unit within the Police Department. With this BO,000 grant from the Law Enforcement Assistance Act we have now been able to hire a Criminal Research Planner and some of the figures you have. seen this evening are available because he is there. We are trying to develop a program and anticipate the needs of the city in the future and bring to you what we think is necessary to bring our community to a safe level. Soon we will be involved in another grant program, the Multi Jurisdictional Burglary Grant, which will include all cities from the San Gabriel River to the East San Gabriel Valley line with the exception of Pomona. These cities will.contribute manpower - Covina, Glendora,the Sheriff's Station,.we will contribute two men, 1 lieutenant and l agent. This group will analyze and attempt to identify known burglarirs and in effect watch them.very carefully. (Explained) We are now reactivating the"CEASE Program. We will be seeking help of the citizens in our community to join together and meet with us while`we.explain steps they can take to prevent serious crimes: If..we can get the people of the community to think along with us in the same way we will then have a very positive effect on -the statistics.we have shown you this evening. Are there any questions? (Councilman Tice indicated before the next Budget Session he would like to go into more detail in regard to the manpower situation; Councilman Shearer asked if there were any studies made that would attempt to relate the<overal economic situation of the country with the crime as related to burglaries and thefts having heard theories advanced to the effect that as unemployment goes up burglaries go up? Chief Sill :said such .studies are going on all the time but looking at West Covina only in our recent research on Part I Crimes it is noted they have not risen although in periods of"bi'gf employment we saw it rising steadily. Our recent reports indicate When they go into a home they walk off with eight or nine thousand dollars of goods now rather than just a small-time burglary. So we are witnessing not so -many burglaries but bigger hauls.) (Mayor Chappell asked if the program mention9d for citizen involvement is the one where the trailer will!',be used and Chief Sill answered - yes, and to a great measure this will depend on what happens in July - to properly coordinate that program and get people together someone has to be there all the time to make sure the program is put on when it is requested, so our budget will indicate whether we can do this or not. We will need additional personnel to put this program on but in the meantime we will continue to operate as we have in the past. This program was originally implemented in 1967 but we did it through the PTA's in the.grade schools and we missed a lot of people. We did get to the parents of the children enrolled in that school but if they had children in other schools such as high - schools, etc., the parents didn't get the word. At that time we were given individual personnel for that program but other con- straints made us drop the program. (Explained what that program entailed in the way of instructing citizens with regard to various locks and things that could be installed for their own protection. ) Mayor Chappell: Chief, I do notice in your conversation that it is one of communication again to our citizens to maintain and protect their own property. We all know that the would-be burglar uses - 4.- 0 CITY COUNCIL ~~ AQ3° MEETING Page Five PRESENTATION BY POLICE DEPT. 2/2/76 different devices to find out when you are home or are not home, such as making a telephone call, also kids going around ringing doorbells and selling items or asking for -donations and thereby finding out when the people are home -and these things are very hard to overcome because we have the various 'organizations requesting permission for the 8rouniga* Cub Scouts, etc., to sell things. These are thingswe cannot stop. Whatever happened to the program ue,had started with the School District and our officers picking up truants? ' ` ' Db'oty��Chi,ef Meacham: It takes an all but effort on the part .' of everyone involved, not only the City but the School Districts -and the the. Oiatriot Attornoy«n office. .The Sohoo+ District*�uhb'initisIly started the program* provided the counsellors but a the program evolved they felt they could no longer keep their counsellors involved so they shut down the center. Butv we haVb on three. or four occasions notified the School District that we were going to �bring in a raft of them and to be prepared. Laot .ueek we. put out as many pgopIe as we could spare for o oonoehtr6tdd»p��idd to pick up truants and strangely enough we didn't find many children on the streets. Councilman Browne: While on.the subject of the schools and their.600porotive efforts with the City,, at the'present time at one of our intermediary schools there are a group of parents meeting to study the 'uwbh�l-e problem, trying to prevail upon the parents their responsibility in relation to handling their children and hope- ' fully within two or three ugako the Committee will present a pro- gram based on ther,c�ahcIusiom�to their research on this and they will then ask the City Council, School District and Police Depart- ment to cooperate in implementing this program. The final meeting is February llth and I will bring back a report to Council. (Coonoilman Shearer made mention of reading of a program being ,carried out in a County in Florida where the officers were allowed to drive their vehicle home at night and use it on various errands, etc., and in return was expected to respond if needed when using the oarw also it gave more exposure of the officers and one of the effects was the maintenance cost on the vehicles went down because the same officer had the responsibility for the maintenance of that particular oar. Chief Sill said he was aware of that type of program and in small oi,tieo it has been done many times - pooling cars is certainly one way of running main- tenance costs up.) Councilman Tice asked how the new UHF communication channel is working out and Chief Sill said it is much better than what we had before ~ we recently madeo survey which indicated another location would be even better.but the system is for far better than what we had before but therm are still areas of improvement. The cost factor of moving the location was questioned and Mr. Eliot said it was o relatively small amount in cost to move it.) Mayor Chappell: We thank you and your staff for putting this project together. Chief Sill: I would like to publicly thank the members of the Police Department Staff for really digging in and pulling these charts together and making them very attractive and understandable. Deputy Chief Meacham andftd'grve Officer Kathy Howard put in a great deal of time. - 5 - CITY COUNCIL — ADJ. MEETING Page Six, PRESENTATION BY POLICE DEPT. 2/2/76 Audience Participant: Mr. Mayor, you touched upon peddlers and people going door to door. I was one of the people that called in with regard to this and it is my understanding that the City requires • �someone.,to take out a form and then they carry a card permit. This person didn't have the card on him but the Police Officer advised,me*he was okay, but I was wondering if it was possible to pass an ordinance requesting the people getting this permit card to have to wear it so we wouldn't have to ask to see the card. Mayor Chappell: We will relay that to our City Clerk who can advise those taking out a permit that it is a requirement that they wear the card. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Councilman Shearer moved for adjourn— ment at 8:55 P.M., seconded by Councilman Browne and carried. • •