PPCC Hosts Public Safety Meeting

By MAGNOLIA LAFLEUR | Reporter

The Pacific Palisades Community Council discussed public safety and community-police engagement with Palisades’ Senior Lead Officer Brian Espin and Sergeant Scott Alpert during its latest meeting on Thursday, February 10.

Due to being short-staffed, Alpert emphasized the importance of having a good relationship within the community.

“When it comes to fighting crime, we can’t do it as well without you guys,” Alpert said. “When it comes to your emails, your phone calls, it really depends on the community to make those phone calls because sometimes we are not in the area.”

Alpert also discussed a “Minimum Patrol Plan,” which detailed how many units each watch needs to have. He said the Day Watch has a minimum of five patrol units—10 officers—deployed. The Mid-Watch has a minimum of three patrol units deployed, Mid-PM Watch has two patrol units deployed and Night Watch has a minimum of six patrol units deployed.

Their Detective Units include an Autos Table (which handles auto-related crimes), Major Assault Crimes (like domestic violence), Crimes Against Persons, a Robbery Table, Burglary Table, Theft Table and Juvenile Table.

Espin and Alpert reviewed West LA hot topics and issues that patrol keeps an eye out for on daily drives, including homelessness, fire hazards, drinking in public and narcotics.

When discussing homeless encampments, Espin praised the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness for their efforts.

“Venice had a large encampment problem. We have a few areas in West LA that have encampments,” Espin said. “One thing I have to say is kudos to the Task Force. We in the Palisades do not have that, most of our people experiencing homeless are transient. Some are residents but we don’t have anything like a lot of the encampments we see through the city.”

They also explained that in the Palisades, officers work primarily with local security companies, such as Gate Security and Apollo Security.

“We communicate with them quite often, especially with the crime maps I send out. So that we are all on the same page of where the crime is occuring,” Espin explained. “We do a lot of information sharing and try to cover the area as adequately as we can. We heavily rely on the community but also the security companies.”

Along with the police presentation, PPCC passed a motion, recommended by the Westside Regional Alliance of Councils, to support a Council resolution calling for inclusion of SB 9 sites as an addendum to the Housing Element.

The next PPCC meeting will be on February 24, and will offer another LAPD presentation—the third of the series— and a presentation on the Metropolis parking application.

For more information, visit pacpalicc.org.