OPERATIONS-CENTRAL BUREAU
COMMUNITY-POLICE ADVISORY BOARD SUMMIT
November 2, 2002

The first Operations-Central Bureau Community-Police Advisory Board (C-PAB) Summit was held November 2, 2002, at California Hospital's Leavey Hall in Los Angeles. It was a comfortable and intimate setting, with round tables covered by tablecloths arranged banquet room style, that lent itself well to such a function.

What a wonderful event ...

The well planned agenda began with a coffee and donuts breakfast at 8:30 am. Short presentations were followed by a spirited Town Hall style discussion. Then an excellent barbecue chicken lunch was prepared for the group by officers from Newton and Central Divisions. The day ended promptly at 2:30 pm with a final review and closing remarks.

Each of the Bureau's five Community-Police Advisory Boards was well represented at the event, with members from Central, Hollenbeck, Newton, Northeast and Rampart Divisions.

Also in attendance were all five Area commanding officers, Captains Charles L. Beck, Central, Paul S. Pesqueira, Hollenbeck, Thomas Regenald Maeweather, Newton, Kyle B. Jackson, Northeast, and Douglas E. Shur, Rampart. All the C-PAB civilian Co-chairs were there as were most of the Area Patrol Captains, and several Community Relations Sergeants and Senior Lead Officers.

Operation-Central Bureau's commanding officer Deputy Chief Margaret York opened the event with a welcoming speech thanking everyone for giving up his or her Saturday to attend the Summit. Her assistant, Commander Cayler (Lee) Carter, led the Pledge of Allegiance. Chief York then introduced the roster of special speakers.

The first speaker of the day was Romerol Malveaux, Director of the Field Operations Division of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE). Ms. Malveaux presented an overview of the current status of the now forming Neighborhood Councils, stressing how, according to the new City Charter, the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners wanted to ensure that all the "stakeholders" were included.

She brought a wealth of printed information and maps to share with the group.

Ms. Malveaux indicated that no doubt every Neighborhood Council would be looking at public safety topics and suggested the Community-Police Advisory Boards could bring a body of knowledge to the table, and serve as bridges between the stakeholders and the Department (please see the LACP article from April entitled "C-PABs and DONE").

Following Ms. Malveaux, Commander Carter introduced a representative member from each of the five Area C-PABs. They gave brief presentations, focusing on their particular group's priorities and explaining how their Division was responsive to community policing issues.

The first presenter was Elliott Birnberg from the Newton Area. He applauded DONE's desire to involve everyone. He stated that he sees C-PABs have a special purpose ... to serve their Divisions. In Newton the C-PAB is particularly proud of the civilian Domestic Abuse Response Team (DART) program, because, along with homicides, combating domestic violence is one of the highest policing priorities for Newton.

The DART program begins with a 10-week training course, and Mr. Birnberg feels that police officers themselves should take the same training course as civilians in order to be more empathetic towards victims. He said the cycle of violence must be broken and consistent DART advocacy training, interrelated throughout the Bureau, is what is needed to be truly successful. Every Division should be deploying DART teams.

Mr. Birnberg also expressed that consideration should be given for certain field officers, like DART, K-9 and mounted officers. They might deserve special rank and special pay, similar in concept to that of a Senior Lead Officer, because their jobs are so specialized and require expert training and skills.

The next presenter was Bill Murray from Hollenbeck's C-PAB. His focus was on the Summit itself, the first ever gathering of Central Bureau's C-PAB members. "This is what it's all about" Mr. Murray said, and the audience responded in total agreement. He then gave a brief overview of past Hollenbeck events such as the two "United Communities to Stop Violence" dialogues (please see the articles "Gangs and Drugs; understanding the issues" - June 1st and "Parenting, Youth and Families; raising a community" - October 29th), but said there wasn't enough time to talk about details of the many other worthwhile Hollenbeck programs, like the Senior Lead Officers' SARA projects.

"But," he noted, "we all know this ... public safety is everyone's business ... it's everyone's issue, as is the quality of life. The very reputation of Los Angeles as a world class city and the reputation of LAPD itself is tied to public safety issues." He went on to say there are bad things everywhere, in every group and organization, "but I want us to be focused on being in the solution. At this Summit we'll have a unique opportunity to meet each other ... to discuss not only what we've done that worked well, but just as important to learn what not to do."

Mr. Murray, founder of the newly formed not-for-profit organization Los Angeles Community Policing (whose website is LACP.org), stated that the original idea behind LACP.org was to create an interactive forum for C-PAB's who didn't otherwise have the ability connect with each other. But driven by the unexpected response from the community at large, from sworn officers, government officials and residents alike, the popularity of the site has made it a full-time job that entails attending many meetings and other forums in order to stay knowledgeable and informed.

LACP enthusiasts are actively carrying the message of the need for community involvement throughout the City. Their purpose is to share this information with everyone, but especially to people who are new to the concepts of community policing.

"In every meeting of every organization the most important person there is the newest person there. Newcomers are the lifeblood of every group," he said, "and getting new people involved in community policing programs should be number one on every C-PAB's list, without exception."

Bertha Wooldridge of Rampart spoke next, welcoming the arrival of the first Bureau Summit and stating how important it is for the Community-Police Advisory Boards to communicate with each other any way they can ... by e-mail, phone calls, personal interaction, etc. She wants to know what programs are working with other C-PAB's so she can implement them herself through Rampart's C-PAB. She said it's important to talk to each other and share, and to keep the lines of communication open and active.

Central Area C-PAB member Donald Spivak also welcomed the group and stated that communication and timely networking are key elements to effective community policing because of the numerous changes occurring in the City. He said we all face problems ... some the same, some different ... and that there is great value in sharing at periodic meetings like these. He noted that we need to be cautious of thinking that a program that works in for one area will automatically work in another.

Mr. Spivak also suggested there should be an exchange of C-PAB meeting minutes and meeting times in order to compare and share information. He pointed out that Community-Police Advisory Boards also have the opportunity to make use of other entities, such as the new Neighborhood Councils for example, and that this is extremely important. "Knowledge is power," he said.

Cheri Uno of Northeast Division was the last C-PAB member to make a presentation, suggesting individual C-PAB members should seek information at Neighborhood Council meetings, Neighborhood Watch groups, etc. and take all of this information back to their neighborhoods to keep them informed. She said neighborhoods need to know of changes in the Los Angeles Police Department, and C-PABs should be informed in order to share that information accurately. Ms. Uno pointed out that Northeast Division shares a common problem with Hollenbeck ... gangs ... and ideas need to be exchanged. Meetings don't need to be long to be effective, and Ms. Uno suggested planning on getting together as a larger group within the Bureau regularly so as to stay connected with each other.

Sergeant Vic Dennis from the Office of the Special Assistant to the Chief of Police was the last presenter on the agenda. He said the Department welcomed such events and looked forward to more of them in the future. The C-PAB programs are important to the success of LAPD because Community-Police Advisory Boards have members who understand the structure and policies of the Department better then most. They carry this information back to the community while at the same time bring the community concerns to the Divisions. The Neighborhood Councils may well be yet another venue where C-PABs can play a significant role.

Later, Sergeant Dennis reminded the group that the Department's LAPDonline website is a fantastic source of information, and he recommended it be visited often. But there is also a wealth of material in print. He explained that a new C-PAB brochure is being produced which will be made available soon. It will better explain the function and importance of Community-Police Advisory Boards throughout the City.

Also due soon is a major new document that will contain current policies and offer resource information. It will be made available through the Bureau to the Divisions, and copies can be distributed to the C-PABs. He also note that because Chief Bratton has a commitment to new technologies he hoped that CD ROM versions of this can be burned, making them even more readily available.

The need to establish better means of timely communication at all levels and better distribution of accurate information was a central theme throughout the Summit. Perhaps Commander Carter summed it up when he noted, "It's all about communication and knowledge." He went on to say, "Operations-Central Bureau wants to take the lead in getting information out … Operations-Central Bureau has the best city services in Los Angeles but knowledge, and communication, can always be improved upon."

At this point Deputy Chief York honored the late George Richter, a pioneer of the Community-Police Advisory Board system at Wilshire Division where Chief York had been a Captain. She said no one had been more dedicated to community policing, and that he frequently "held feet to the fire" to support his cause. To this day, the attitudes of C-PAB members are compared to George with Chief York saying she'd heard people ask, "Where is he on the George Richter scale?"

The group gave a big round of applause to George Richter in his memory.

Deputy Chief York then asked all the Senior Lead Officers and Community Relations Sergeants to introduce themselves, and gave special mention to two members of her staff, Officer Mary Balchowsky and Sergeant Daryl M. Russell, for all their hard work in planning "such an action packed day."

Deputy York made the comment about the day's event being referred to by some as a 'mini-summit.' "But," she said, "this is not a 'mini-summit' ... there is nothing mini about it. I'd call it a 'major-summit,' and we've decided simply to refer to it as the 'Operations-Central Bureau Summit.'"

She then introduced members of the Human Relations Department who were on hand to act as facilitators for the Town Hall portion of the event, Arturo Piña, Emily Williams, Victoria Minetta, Gary Del La Rosa and Patricia Villaseñor. The Chief expressed her appreciation for their willingness to participate. She noted that the Human Relations Department had come to being in 1965 as a response to the Watts riots, and were mandated to facilitate good relationships among the residents of the City of Los Angeles.

Patricia Villaseñor thanked all the attendees and officers for their warm welcome and presented Emily Williams, the LAPD specialist at Human Relations who teaches at the Police Academy.

Emily guided the Town Hall portion of the meeting, first listing the following simple ground rules:

To help facilitate the ideas, Emily suggested focusing on "what worked in our Division ... what things have we attempted and whether they worked or not." She also pointed out that the Los Angeles Police Department is one of the most interactive Departments in the country and that we had our work cut out for us.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Human Relations recorded the event on audio tape and will distill the results of the Operations-Central Bureau Summit into a detailed report. This will take several weeks, but as soon as it's available we'll let you know.

A spirited conversation ensued. Here are the highlights of some of the topics and ideas that came out of the meeting:

Early comments were about the need for a city-wide calendar of Community-Police Advisory Board and other Division events. Each of the C-PABs should report their events to others. But what's the best way to make it available?

Emily asked Bill Murray to explain the already functioning LACP Calendar. The LACP on-line interactive calendar is color coded for ease of use. The vision is to eventually provide individual calendars to all the Areas, one per Division.

Sergeant Dennis reported that there's a printed Master Calendar maintained at the Chief's Office and said this will be mailed out to the C-PABs.

There should be an ongoing discussion of best practices to spark interest in cooperating with the Department. The community needs to be engaged and one of the best was is to share information on programs. We should record our success.

C-PAB members should serve in the Neighborhood Councils, and could do so in a variety of capacities, depending on their structures. DONE can post information about meetings and can maintain an interest calendar so that C-PABs can cover some of the same issues city-wide.

There was a recommendation to reach out to business groups. C-PABs can approach the Chambers of Commerce and ask to be placed on meeting agendas to make short presentations. All C-PAB's should have local business people on their Boards.

Youth should be sought for their participation with C-PABs. One way of fostering this is to take the Area C-PAB meetings out into the schools. Other venues should be sought, too, so as to have the Community-Police Advisory Boards go out into the community, not the other way around.

By way of enhancing the effectiveness and cooperation between C-PABs it was suggested that the Co-chairs meet on a quarterly basis. There they could share not only their problems and concerns but also their successes, and take this information back to share with the whole C-PAB group.

More, larger, city-wide meetings for the exchange of ideas was also recommended. Boards would no doubt return to the Division with list of positive ideas and practices. Doing this could enhance the reputation of C-PABs city-wide, fostering real links between C-PAB's and strong partnerships.

Perhaps having more social type events will create opportunity's for people to meet. It was suggested that a Bureau C-PAB Summit like the one should happen quarterly, All 18 C-PABs should have an annual meeting with Chief of Police. Board members would take information they learned at these meetings to the many other organizations they attend.

C-PABs should consider themselves as a resource for public safety programs that will help the public and businesses. Divisions should constantly reassess local needs to help improve providing current available resources. They should look at how information about these these resources are made available to the public. CD-ROM versions would help. For the most part, only printed hardcopies are available now.

Ernie Sanchez, representing the office of Councilman Ed Reyes (CD-1), noted that the City Council Districts can help everyone to be responsible to one another, and can help with community needs. The offices have a Resource Guide that's now available. Just contact your Council District's office. Ernie said CD-1 will be happy to provide them.

It was pointed out that local libraries need those guides onsite. We also need to know how citizens can implement the programs available. Sometimes we need a written explanation about how to educate the public on what's available, especially for specialty programs like CERT (LAFD's Community Emergency Response Teams), CPR classes, Safe Home / Safe Passage programs, etc.

There are a lot of CBOs (Community Based Organizations) that already exist, but we need to educate ourselves about how can they help. They have resource guides with wonderful information, too. C-PABs can get the word out to others, and help get them engaged. In general C-PAB members know how LAPD itself works, and understand the LAPD structure, so many members are able to inform the public about the Department now.

When it comes to holding LAPD's Special Events it's important to understand the time frame needed to promote them and give notice. This information should go through C-PABs to let public know as early as possible. We should also let the Neighborhood Councils know of government action and agendas. In Rampart Division several events had been held where there'd been repeated street closures recently ... without sufficient notice. Not only was this an inconvenience to the neighborhood but some of the local business in the community were hurt by the change in traffic. All members of the public should be included and informed on something like this.

It was suggested there be a C-PAB Quarterly Newsletter. The Division Captains already put out a monthly message, so why not ask the civilian Co-chairs to do the same thing? The result could be an informational Newsletter.

Sergeant Dennis noted that the Captains' messages are posted on the LAPDonline website, and said we could find a lot of information on LAPD's structure, and a who's-who in the Department there. This is where he mentioned that LAPD is close to producing a city-wide C-PAB brochure, noting that the Hollywood has a "slick" one already.

We need to explore how we can increase the core of volunteers. We tend to see same folks are involved in everything. Perhaps there could be mailers from other C-PABs that would include minutes. We need to be proactive in our outreach. Maybe we should establish a C-PAB website to share information and minutes.

It was pointed out that we also need to look at how to reach those who are not online. The best approach, as is always the case, is through one-on-one encounters, because a flyer alone does not express enthusiasm nor the details of an event. The C-PABs can help by asking member organizations who have mailing lists to help send out Community-Police Advisory Board information.

The attendees were offered the use of the LA Community Policing website (this site, at LACP.org) which already has a section devoted to news from every Division and C-PAB.

Just by clicking on News - Divisions / C-PABs located on the front page a reader is taken to a list of all the Areas. By clicking on the Division name the appropriate section with current information is displayed. Each of these sections can be many many pages deep and carry as much news and information as is desired, according to the wishes of the Area.

LACP will gladly provide this service, working with the separate Division C-PABs and Community Relations Officers to create an online presence unique to its needs and desires. To take advantage of this all that's needed is for information to be sent in, usually by email, Word document, etc. Corrections and updates to web pages can be done almost instantly.

Again it was suggested that we use the Neighborhood Councils to get C-PAB information out, and each can take advantage of the other for recruitment. Both groups will want to build relationships with youth, and local people may know of youth who might be attracted to participate. Police officers should know all the organizations that work with youth to help with outreach. Holding C-PAB meetings away from the Division and out at a public sight will mean reaching a larger group and foster more face-to-face encounters.

Originally Neighborhood Watch, Block Captain and other community policing programs were conducted at members' homes, but most have now moved to public venues. This resulted in a loss of "the personal aspect" of the interactions. We need to consider often getting away from the meeting rooms we're currently using to reach out to different people, groups and businesses.

That's what grassroots is all about, being face-to-face and getting both the members and the officers to meet-and-greet newcomers. In C-PAB there's a job for everyone, not just LAPD personnel. The community members must be committed to involvement. We need to practice what we preach.

Reaching out to youth was mentioned again. There will be a special Youth Town Hall meeting soon in Newton Division, probably sometime in December. It was suggested that we should learn to utilize the Explorers in more creative ways.

Other programs and ideas were shared, too. For example, some areas concentrate their efforts on creating a Graffiti Free Zone where no graffiti is allowed to stay.

We need to listen to others, and do whatever we can to make sure a Bureau C-PAB Summit such as this is repeated. We need to ensure insure that this happens.

Breaking things down to the lowest level is a good idea. We need to review what sub-committees working out of all the other C-PAB's in the City. Some thought the C-PAB's may have to re-invent themselves, perhaps via the Neighborhood Councils, by building good relationships with them. Although the Neighborhood Councils will cover many issues, each will have a common concern for public safety. C-PABs can opt for partnerships with them when appropriate. Sergeant Dennis pointed out that Neighborhood Councils are starved for institutional knowledge about LAPD, and C-PAB members can take advantage of this because they'll be in leadership roles.

For the most part C-PAB areas will overlap several Neighborhood Councils, constituting a significant community base. We should be involved with many groups, getting C-PAB issues out to them and bringing back community issues to our C-PABs.

We should get faith based groups and churches involved, establishing dialogues, discerning their issues, etc. It was said that the C-PABs need some affirmation, too.

One attendee recommended LAPD "needs more horses." He pointed out that it was rare to see a child go over to pat a Black and White. We need to pay attention to the young generation, and mix and match our members efforts with community needs.

Finally, it was pointed out that without maintaining a treasury, without financial support, and without the inability to do fundraising events, C-PAB members were historically forced to pay for things out of their own pockets, or rely on the mercy of Booster groups or the Department to do anything. On their own, the C-PABs are financially powerless. It was suggested this be a topic for future discussion.

At this point the delicious barbecue chicken lunch was held. The officers did a wonderful job cooking and preparing the buffet.

Emily Williams had suggested the members not return to their same tables but take advantage of lunch to mix in with each other in a different configuration as they ate.

When lunch was finished Emily wrapped thing up by stating a few of the objectives and goals.

First, she invited the group to feel free to send comments or feedback to her at: hrc@mailbox.lacity.org

In summary the Central Bureau C-PAB Summit had focussed on the three R's:

The overwhelming theme of the day had been the need for better communication, information sharing and outreach. We'd virtually all seen a need to create new systems that engaged the newer technologies ... use of email, internet, CD ROMs, etc.

Among other things we'd discussed our relationships to businesses, youth and the Neighborhood Councils, ensuring a vibrant healthy membership, and meaningful parnerships both inside and outside the LAPD.

It was obvious there was a need to address the lack of financial support, and the ability to do fundraising and to maintain a treasury.

Several vehicles were suggested as ways to keep meeting as a group of Central Bureau C-PABs in cluding quarterly meetings, an an annual social gathering with the Chief of Police.

It was obvious the group wanted to know about at least the highlights of the other C-PAB meetings, perhaps by sharing minutes.

WE should look for other partnerships, and other resources. There should be maximum involvement of the CBOs, Council Offices and libraries, and a needs assessment should be conducted regularly.

Deputy Chief York closed the Summit, commenting that the lunch was so good and California Hospital such a nice venue she'd not be surprised if Sergeant Russell would become a party plannner when he retires!

The Chief thanked everyone for their commitment to the Los Angeles Police Department, saying she knew the LAPD was blessed with such wonderful support.

Bill Murray, in turn, expressed his appreciation on behalf of all the C-PAB members present to Deputy Chief York, Commander Carter and the rest of the LAPD for all their hard work. All of the participants applauded, showing their thanks for such a job well done.

We certainly look forward to the next Operations-Central Bureau C-PAB Summit.

And hey, we'll put it on the LACP Calendar as soon as we're given a date!