Captain Tom Provides Area Updates at Recent PPCC Meeting

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Los Angeles Police Department Captain Jonathan Tom, commanding officer of the West LA Division, attended the most recent Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting on November 18 to speak on area updates and answer questions from board members.

“This is an important community council to me,” Tom said at the start of his short presentation. “I don’t hear from all the community councils, and we have seven in the West Los Angeles area. I do hear quite often from PPCC.”

Tom went on to explain that he has been in his post, which covers 65 square miles (the largest in the city of Los Angeles) since January 2020. He is a graduate of University High School, with personal ties to the Palisades community.

He shared that the evening before the PPCC meeting, he completed a presentation for the American Legion Ronald Reagan – Palisades Post 283, where he, along with Senior Lead Officer Brian Espin, provided an overview of LAPD, including staffing, challenges and how the local division compares with others. He shared plans to break the presentation into three separate 20-minute segments, which he could do as a three-part series at future PPCC meetings.

One of the questions that came up during his time with the American Legion was if the beach detail would continue through the winter and what is happening with it.

“What I explained … is that the beach detail is still staffed,” Tom said. “We have a Police Officer III, Jose Bermudez, and a Police Officer II, Adam Margin, that are currently assigned to that beach detail.”

Though Bermudez is preparing for an upcoming vacation, Tom described him as a “really great resource for that detail because he’s a former narcotics officer.”

“A lot of the homeless people you’re concerned about in the Palisades—and the ones that we’re concerned about as well—have some kind of narcotic addiction,” Tom explained. “Oftentimes … in order to pay for their narcotics, they’ll break into cars and do burglaries, minor thefts, etc.”

He explained that societal factors, including the decriminalization of drugs from felony to misdemeanor charges, also has an impact on the issues the department is dealing with.

“We used to be able to arrest someone and book them for a felony charge for any amount of crack cocaine, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin,” Tom said. “Now, under current laws, if you possess a personal use amount, then you essentially can get a ticket for it.”

Tom then took questions from PPCC board members, including Marilyn Wexler, who asked about a person who is experiencing homelessness “who has been challenging people in the bottom of the canyon.” Tom shared that he has heard anecdotally about this person, but that while residents feel this person is dangerous, there have not been any formal reports to the police with open charges where the person could be arrested.

“If you’re a victim of a crime, you have to report it, so that we can do something about it in two different ways,” Tom explained. “One is that we can actually physically go out and arrest the person if we have probable cause. Number two is it allows us to know there are problems in your area.”

Tom said that LAPD bases its number of officers deployed on reported crimes in the area. PPCC Chair David Card shared that Tom, along with members of the community, are working on a flyer that will have information about who to call in different circumstances.

“Thank you so much, Captain Tom,” Card concluded. “We will have you back as soon as your program is ready to share with us and for maybe a series of three.”