Photo by discarted via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
A reader writes in and asks us on how to stop the sudden surge of prostitution on his block. According to him, within the last week an obvious prostitution operation is in business, condoms are found on the ground and the street is generally much louder late at night. But who do you go to get help?
Your local councilmember's office is always there to help, but sometimes going to them and directly to the LAPD officer in charge of your area is helpful. Los Angeles is covered by 19 police divisions and within each are smaller "basic car" areas. Each of those areas has a Senior Lead Officer, often referred to as SLO, who is sort of like the mini chief of police for the area. A good SLO knows many of community members, comes to neighborhood meetings and has picked patrol officers that know the area well.
To find your SLO, you first need to know which police division you're in. Interestingly enough, the best direct and linkable tool is from the LA Fire Department. Plug in your address and you'll be sent to your police division's homepage.
Now that you know your division, you need to find your Basic Car area which has codes like 9A89 or 3A73, etc. The police division homepage should have a Basic Car map. Download it and locate your home to find the Basic Car area number. In the reader's case, the block with prostitution is within 3A15 of the LAPD's Southwest Division. To find the SLO's name for that specific area, you can call the division or sometimes the station has an online directory. Luckily, the Southwest Division posts the info online meaning that we'll be soon talking to Officer Brian Hun about what's going on here.
Until next time regarding this block, stay safe out there and don't forget to see crimes on your block using the LAPD Crime Maps tool.
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Well I suppose you could have a peace march kind of like the one in the pic, but then you'd have to call it a a piece march.
Just handle the crime in your town vigilante style. That's what Batman would do.
Where's Jack the Ripper when you need him?
It's a rough call, we still have many citizens of l.a. with distrust in the police dept. Community policing is gone. Robbery has gone up in my neighborhood, and many of them are not reported because the neighbors have no faith in the police dept.
stuff happens
I initially contacted the Council member and his office referred me to the SLO. There were issues with certain people in the neighborhood playing music in the middle of the night, gangs, graffiti, since I have been in contact with the SLO there has been a substantial change. The music is not played at 2am in the morning, the graffiti no longer sits for weeks it's cleaned up w/i a day or two. The gang presence while still there has substantially subsided.
I think it made a huge difference that I kept running into the SLO when I initially contacted him, at events hosted by the LAFD or LAPD. I made sure to share the SLO's info with a couple neighbors, so it wasn't just me, but others who made the same complaints.
The SLO is there to help the citizens of that neighborhood, and they are more than willing to meet with you and speak to you and your neighbors in person.
STOP SNITCHING
STOP COMMITTING CRIMES AND WE'LL STOP SNITCHING ON YOU.