For incumbent mayor James Hahn and the four other major
candidates vying to spoil his hopes for re-election, crime
reduction has become a defining issue in winning the confidence of
Angelinos heading to the polls in less than two weeks to choose the
next mayor of Los Angeles.
The common stance among the major candidates is to increase the
size of the Los Angeles Police Department, an improvement many
believe the city desperately needs.
“The (ratio) of people to police is about double what it
is in other major cities,” said Nathan James, a spokesman for
mayoral candidate and city councilman Antonio Villaraigosa.
Though the candidates agree that bulking up the police force
would be necessary in curbing crime, they diverge when it comes to
funding the overhaul.
Hahn, who has promised 1,200 new police officers if reelected,
proposed a 0.5 percent sales tax hike to pay for the new officers
during his first term, a move that was blocked by the city
council.
“We need to send a message to these naysayers in the city
council that we’re willing to make the investment in public
safety,” said Kam Kuwata, a spokesman for the Hahn
campaign.
Villaraigosa, a member of the city council, has explained his
vote against Hahn’s proposal, saying that the sales tax hike
would have been unfair. Though the increased revenues would have
been used to hire new police officers across L.A. county, the sales
tax hike would have been limited to the city of Los Angeles, James
said.
“It was proposed in a hasty fashion, it wouldn’t
have done anything to address crime on the county level. It was a
political campaign ploy that Hahn used to hide his failed campaign
promise to provide 1,000 new police officers,” James said,
adding that, if elected, Villaraigosa would consider proposing a
county-wide sales tax hike.
Villaraigosa, currently neck and neck with Hahn in the polls,
has promised to hire and train 1,600 new police officers within
three years if he is elected, a pledge some believe would be too
lofty to accomplish, let alone maintain.
“We can’t have a flash of a thousand new officers.
You have to make sure whatever you add stays there,” said
city councilman Bernard Parks, a candidate for mayor and the former
Los Angeles police chief.
“These are just political messages to get attention during
election time.”
Parks, who would limit LAPD expansions to no more than 100 new
officers a year, said more attention needs to be paid to funding
prevention and intervention programs.
The main points of concern in Westwood are apartment break-ins
and burglaries, with the occasional stolen car, said Senior Lead
Officer Michael Moore, who oversees LAPD forces across most of the
West Los Angeles area.
Though crime rates around the Westwood area are relatively low
compared to the rest of the city, Moore said, as a town populated
predominantly by college students, Westwood village can be
especially appealing to criminals seeking a quick fix.
“They find that it’s easy picking. For some reason,
students get careless and they’ll leave cell phones, lap
tops, money in their cars and forget to lock the door,” Moore
said, adding that approximately 41 percent of apartment burglaries
in Westwood are the result of unlocked doors.
Currently, only one patrol car is assigned to make the rounds
around Westwood during the day. None are assigned specifically to
the village and nearby residences at night.
Moore said he needs at least ten new police officers to be
assigned to the area, a gain that would allow the addition of one
patrol car to each shift.
“It would have a tremendous impact in reducing
crime,” Moore said. “There would be more time for
officers to address quality of life issues.”
A sense of safety is especially important for college students,
Parks said.
“The importance of living in L.A. is that you’re in
a mecca of diversity and that’s a part of growing up
that’s as important as book learning,” Parks said.
“You can’t restrict yourself to the library when this
whole bustling world is going on around you.”