By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter
Concerned for safety, privacy and peace of mind, Palisadians filled Mercer Hall at Palisades Charter High School to the brim on Tuesday, March 6, for a community town hall focused on local crime and safety.
After a recent 9 percent uptick in crime, concerned citizens took action and arranged a community town hall to pick the brains of local police and officials, including LAPD Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore, Deputy Fire Chief Armando Hogan, Neighborhood Prosecutor Veronica de la Cruz Robles, a Palisadian on the city’s legal team and Pacific Palisades Community Council Chair and Marquez Knolls resident Maryam Zar.
The town hall gave community members an opportunity to present their concerns directly to officials, including Councilmember Mike Bonin.
“In last year’s budget process we launched a major and aggressive effort to get more able-bodied officers off of desk duty and back out onto the streets,” Bonin said, assuring Palisadians that LAPD has started re-deploying officers around the city. “We have five additional officers for the West LA area as of this deployment period and that is a trend that hopefully continues.”
The promise of more patrol cars was a relief, as the impending threat by the California regulators to eliminate local beach’s midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew has locals worried it will draw rowdy beach goers onto their front lawns at 2 a.m.
Bonin informed the audience that he is working on acquiring a coastal development permit from the Coastal Commission that will allow the current curfew to remain in place.
Moore once again reiterated the importance of preventive or deterrent measures to take to reduce burglaries. From doorstep cameras to taking an extra second to lock their Tesla, what gets stolen is ultimately up to the victim.
This was not enough for some: Alphabet Streets residents—suffering from a current spike in burglaries—are still pushing ahead with their own self-financed plans to hire extra protection for their neighborhood.
Highlands residents hoped to hear of an update on evacuation plans for the area after having two fire scares within a week of each other, to which they were told a plan is still in the works by way of community outreach and planning.
“That way we’re all speaking the same language, no one is confused and our goal is to provide you the best care we can in that time of crisis,” Hogan said, adding that canyon and hillside communities are being prioritized first.
Dr. Pam Magee, principal of Pali High, ensured parents that the school is increasing security measures as the consideration of a physical fence or gate around campus continue. The issue is how to balance that out with the warmer atmosphere of an open campus.
While such challenges are all pending long-term solutions, Palisadians can, in the meantime, find some comfort in being number 175 out of 209 on the property crime rate in LA County list, and 190 in most violent.
This is, as one observer said, still one of the safest towns in the United States.
The issue now is to keep it that way.
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