Community Meeting with Chief Bratton
held in Northeast Division - May 6th

by Tony Scudellari

Dear Friends & Neighbors:

Tuesday night's Northeast Division community meeting with LAPD Chief William Bratton was very informative and productive.

Deputy Chief Gary Brennan, Central Bureau's commanding officer was there, as was Northeast Division's Captain Kyle Jackson. Also attending were the Police Protective League Vice-president, Mitzi Grasso, and Councilman Eric Garcetti, who helped put the whole evening together.

Community leaders from Atwater Village, Elysian Valley and Glassell Park were part of the panel.

Glassell Park was well represented by community leaders Raul Macias from Anahuak Soccer, Brian Frobisher from GPNC, Remy Baluyut from St. Bernard's & GPNC, Tony Scudellari for GPIA and co-moderator Myriam Magana for both GPNC and a Parent-Teacher Co-coordinator at Washington Irving Middle School.

Among the highlights:

Chief Bratton has three priorities:

The Chief is a strong advocate of community policing since it helps the department determine what problems need to be handled in a particular community. Chief Bratton's ultimate goal is prevention of crime.

The Chief and Northeast Division's own Captain Kyle Jackson cited some very encouraging statistics -- crime is down 22% in Northeast Division and homicides in the City are down 28%.

And, in a conversation with Captain Jackson after the meeting, he mentioned that statistics for the decrease in crime in the communities of Atwater Village, Elysian Valley and Glassell Park are even better than those in the rest of Northeast.

Chief Bratton also discussed the new Compstat system, which takes real-time crime report and arrest information and uses it to:

	get accurate, timely information and analyzes it,
	allows LAPD to rapidly respond to "hot spots,"
	help LAPD develop tactics and
	once an arrest is made, LAPD can come back to check on an area to see if the problem situation has been eliminated.

Chief Bratton said that once the system is in place, the first part of Compstat meetings will be open to the public and the information will be put on the LAPDonline web site.

All communities present have a "Drop-In Center" for LAPD -- Glassell Park's is at the Recreation Center. Captain Jackson told those assembled that he has asked the department's Senior Lead Officers to make regular visits to the area Drop-In Centers.

At the end of the meeting, Councilmember Garcetti helped to facilitate commitments from the communities and LAPD to better policing based on the questions from the panelists and the dialogue created.

Among the items of special interest to Glassell Park residents:

	Councilmember Garcetti has pledged to help strengthen the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program,
	will help to facilitate Glassell Park in establishing LA Bridges in our community.
	LAPD will increased graffiti abatement,
	increased public safety for the schools in our communities,
	attempt to eradicate drag racing (a special concern since this is a problem on Eagle Rock Blvd. and Division Street),
	allow community members to sit in on Compstat meetings with a pledge for this to start in June.

And, not only will this information be available on line, but Captain Jackson also pledged to have the information posted at the Rec. Centers in our communities so that it may be accessible to those in our communities that may not have computer access.

	a community meeting to deal with the issues of greater safety along the LA River,
	increased police and community presence at the LAPD Drop In Centers.

We thank Councilmember Garcetti and his office for organizing this very productive meeting and we thank all the Glassell Park residents who were present and participated in the process.

Sincerely,

Tony Scudellari
President Glassell Park Improvement Association

Tscud1@earthlink.net