Mayor Hahn on Crime and Public Safety

By James Kenneth Hahn

Highlights of Mayor Hahn's record

Working with community and business leaders from across the city, Mayor Hahn moved police officers from behind desks and onto our streets and restored Los Angeles' community policing program. Local residents now work in partnership with the LAPD to fight and prevent crime in our neighborhoods.

As part of his comprehensive strategy to fight crime, Mayor Hahn expanded the city's nationally-recognized LA's BEST after school program to serve an additional 5,500 students at 45 additional schools throughout Los Angeles. The program now gives over 20,000 students a safe and educational place to go during the crucial after school hours.

These efforts are working. Crime is on the decline. Violent crime is down nearly 18 percent compared with just two years ago.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, local police and firefighters have become our nation's first responders. Los Angeles' program to enhance protection of critical locations such as schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, movie studios and office buildings is now being used as a national model.

Below are highlights of Mayor Hahn's record on public safety.

PUTTING MORE POLICE OFFICERS AND FIREFIGHTERS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

• Helped the LAPD increase its ranks for the first time since 1997, and worked with the LAPD to move officers from behind desks and into neighborhoods.

• Streamlined the Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD's) hiring process to reduce the length of the application process for new recruits from 12 months to less than 120 days.

• Initiated bilingual recruitment programs at LAPD to improve community relations in areas where the predominant language is not English. The program has recently expanded recruitment of Spanish-speaking officers and Korean-speaking, as well as Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Vietnamese.

• Created an effort to recruit more women to LAPD, which led to a record number of women receiving training at the Police Academy.

• Made it easier for LAPD officers who left the department in good standing to return to the department to help put more experienced officers in our neighborhoods.

• Implemented a flexible work schedule for police officers, which helps LAPD put officers on the street during the hours when they are most needed.

• Funded over 100 firefighter/paramedics and the replacement of obsolete Fire Department equipment. Mayor Hahn's budget also added paramedic resources so that for the first time Los Angeles will have an ambulance in every fire station.

• Expanded the Los Angeles Fire Department Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) program, which trains community volunteers to provide emergency assistance to their neighbors. Over 10,000 residents have received this training since Mayor Hahn took office.

• Expanded the city's nationally-recognized LA's BEST after school program to serve over 5,500 additional students at 45 additional schools. The program now provides free of charge a safe, educational and fun place for more than 20,000 Los Angeles students at over 120 elementary schools.

• Created the Los Angeles Safer City Initiative to reduce violent crime in targeted neighborhoods by focusing on reducing quality of life crimes such as graffiti and drug dealing.

• Secured additional federal resources from the U.S. Department of Justice to help fight gang crime in Los Angeles.

• Successfully advocated to bring the Gang Reduction Program to East Los Angeles to provide millions of grant funds to after school, college preparation and other programs that give young people positive alternatives to gangs.

• Directed the LAPD to reinstate and improve service on the LAPD's "cold phone" to allow residents to anonymously provide information about gang crimes. The toll-free phone number is 877-LAWFULL.

• Developed and implemented an anti-gang initiative to curb gang violence that includes creating job programs and recreational activities for young people.

• Kicked-off an anti-graffiti campaign that encourages residents to report graffiti so that it can be quickly removed. Under Mayor Hahn's leadership, the city's Operation Clean Sweep program has cleaned up over 60 million square feet of graffiti.

• Directed the LAPD to assign a Gang Impact Team (GIT) to every LAPD area. Through these teams, gang officers and narcotics detectives provide coverage of gang crime 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

• Led the effort to reinstate the Senior Lead Officer (SLO) Program, LAPD's community policing program, to provide a direct link between Los Angeles communities and the police department.

• Co-hosted public safety town hall meetings in neighborhoods across Los Angeles to give local residents an opportunity to discuss safety concerns.

• Worked with LAPD to ensure the department tracks and monitors pedestrian and traffic stops to help the department identify potential problems with racial profiling. Mayor Hahn included requiring this data collection as part of the consent decree he negotiated when he was City Attorney.

• Signed into law ordinances allowing LAPD to seize vehicles used for soliciting prostitution, drug transactions, or illegally dumping bulky items and hazardous materials.

• Co-hosted the Southern California Leadership Conference on Gun Trafficking, the first of its kind in Los Angeles. The summit brought together elected officials, law enforcement, prosecutors and technical experts to foster collaborative efforts to help keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

• Joined members of the Million Mom March and other local organizations in calling for the renewal of the federal assault weapons ban. As City Attorney, Hahn wrote the law banning assault weapons in Los Angeles, the first major city in California to do so.

• Signed into law an ordinance that prohibits the sale or transfer of large caliber handguns and rifles in the city.

• Chairs the U.S. Conference of Mayors Aviation Security Task Force, composed of mayors from across the country. The task force helped shape federal airport and aviation security measures after September 11.

• Strongly supported LAPD's efforts to establish plans for protecting critical locations such as schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, movie studios, office buildings, the Port of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles International Airport. Known as Operation Archangel, the program has been designated as a national model.

• Successfully advocated for millions of federal dollars to purchase equipment and provide training for Los Angeles first responders, including our firefighters and police officers.

• Implemented the federally-funded Los Angeles Urban Area Initiative to collaborate with neighboring cities on homeland security issues to better protect residents and businesses.

• Worked to ensure that all Los Angeles firefighters completed training to respond to incidents involving biological and chemical weapons.

• Proposed modernizing Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with a focus on improving safety and security in the post-September 11 environment. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca endorsed the plan.

• Implemented new baggage screening measures at LAX, which helped LAX become the largest airport in the country to comply with new federal regulations that require all checked luggage to be screened by the Transportation Security Administration's deadline of December 2002.

• Successfully advocated for millions of dollars in funding for security enhancements at the Port of Los Angeles, including training Port Police as Sea Marshals to board and secure vessels coming into the Port.

• Supported the fire and police departments in conducting several training large-scale exercises, including the evacuation of high rise buildings, simulations of a hazardous materials incident at an indoor shopping mall, and terrorist activity at LAX and the Port of Los Angeles.

• Secured funding for equipment and vehicles that allow agencies using different radio frequencies to communicate seamlessly in the event of an emergency.

• Hosts an annual Homeland Security Leadership Summit to bring together homeland security experts from across the country to share best information and best practices on protecting America's cities.