Community Policing

THE PROGRAM: The Los Angeles Police Department has assigned 31 officers to full-time community relations duty in the San Fernando Valley. The officers, who in the past spend only a few hours a month on such duty, now work full-time with neighborhood organizations and individuals. One of the 31 areas is described below:

Sun Valley, Sunland

THE OFFICER: James O’Riley, North Hollywood Division (818) 989-8838

THE AREA: Drug sales and burglary from vehicles are the major crime problems on O’Riley’s beat, a mixture of residential neighborhoods and commercial areas bordered by the Golden State and Hollywood freeways and Saticoy Avenue. Commercial burglaries are also on the rise, perhaps, because a high number of transients frequent the area, O’Riley says.