Community Policing / Arleta, Pacoima

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 spent 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:

THE OFFICER: Minor Jimenez, Foothill Division, (818) 989-8866

THE AREA: Jimenez’s beat in the northeast Valley is made up primarily of low- and middle-income residential neighborhoods. Gangs and drug sales are the worst problems in the area and often are interrelated, Jimenez says. Many transients roaming the area are drug abusers, and the gangs often peddle drugs, he says.