Captain Brian Johnson, commanding officer of the Pacific Division sent a letter to Jason Teague and Kip Pardue and to others concerned. (See Comments for Teague and Pardue.

Jason/Kip/All,

I wanted to share an email that I sent to VSA several months ago, just to put some perspective on how important/serious LAPD/Pacific takes the issues in Venice (This is just one of many I’ve personally sent to local Venice residents):

I realize it might not seem like we are doing enough on the beach, but the Beach Detail often gets activated to handle radio calls within Venice. That said, OFW will always be a primary focus for the Beach Detail officers, and we constantly check our deployment and make adjustment according to Part I crime along the beach. In fact, we changed the Beach Detail to a 4/10 work schedule from the 3/12, because of crime and deployment needs. This was not a popular decision among the rank and file, but it was the right decision. We also looked at our deployment against our actual work schedules (time of day); and we shifted several Beach Detail officers to the night shift to address the Part I crime trend/pattern.

To be very candid, we look at crime 24/7 and make adjustments often daily based on spikes in crime, emerging clusters/patterns, etc. This goes to the core of our Predictive Policing crime analysis and crime fighting enforcement strategy.

I also realize how frustrating many residents, business owners, and other stakeholders are in Venice. Frankly, it keeps me up late at night constantly evaluating our effectiveness. I’m equally committed to working to address not only our crime issues but the quality of life issues associated with our “service resistant” criminal population and our homeless. As we all know, these are very complicated issues and the LAPD is only one part of the short and long term solution; recognizing the legal challenges we face when it comes to enforcement.

We will continue to work with the City Attorney’s Office, CD11 and other city departments to ensure we address all the crime and quality of life issues in Venice in a Constitutionally and humane way.

I hope this clarifies some of the questions and if you or your board have any further questions, please call me any time.” (6/26/2014)

In addition, we’ve expanded our deployment even further with our Homeless Outreach, Hype Car and other daily undercover operations with Vice and Narcotics. More importantly, on July 9, 2014, we implemented the “Virtual Fence” (Smart Policing) along OFW, which has proven to be an effective enforcement strategy. Capt. Alberca, Beach Supervisors and I continue to monitor our deployment, personnel and effectiveness on a daily basis. Admittedly, our work is NO WHERE near being done, but I believe we are making progress. Venice will always be a Top priority for Pacific.

That said, I’m respectfully requesting that we set up a community meeting here at Pacific Station, so I can personally provide everyone with a comprehensive overview of all the Crime Stats, Arrest Stats, Homeless Referrals, etc. that we conduct on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. And the enforcement strategies we have planned for 2015 to continue our impact on crime and the quality of life issues in Venice.

I would also like to clarify many of the issues regarding police enforcement action specific to Jones and Lavan. I know there have been many suggestions and legal advice/opinions given in many of these email threads, but everyone needs to understand that I can only take legal advice from our Police General Counsel.

I truly look forward to meeting with everyone so we can have a productive and meaningful discussion on how we can all help make a difference and change Venice for the better. The week of December 15 is best for me and I will make myself available any time.

Finally, I want everyone to know that LAPD/Pacific is completely committed to working with the entire Venice community to make a difference and reduce the fear and incidence of crime, no exceptions. That has always been my personal commitment and that will never change.

Respectfully,
Brian