Police Patrols

Responding to a spate of gang violence at Los Angeles' Jordan Downs housing project, city officials are launching an unusual program that links surveillance cameras to stepped-up police patrols, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Thursday.

Twenty-two people had been killed in Compton as of this time last year, when the city was in the midst of a yearlong wave of gang violence. So far this year, the city has recorded three homicides. The difference? Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has quietly doubled the number of deputies, detectives and other personnel assigned to Compton in what officials and residents see as all-out attention to reducing violence. It is not clear how long the intensified deployment will last.

On his first assignment in Boston as a rookie police officer, William J. Bratton walked the business district beat in an all-black neighborhood. As a young man whose prior contact with African Americans was limited to a couple of classmates, that assignment helped shape his perspective as he rose up the ladder of law enforcement, the Los Angeles police chief said. "I remember how that experience changed the rest of my life," Bratton said.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday ordered its staff to look into raising boaters' fees and other harbor charges after a grand jury questioned why the county was footing the bill for nearly $10 million in harbor patrol services each year.

Three days after the second racially and gang-motivated brawl at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles, about 1,000 parents, students and community members crammed into the campus auditorium Thursday night to hear what district and city officials were going to do about the violence.

The school day at Jefferson High School passed without incident Tuesday. But it was far from typical. After a surprise visit from Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer, Mayor James K. Hahn showed up. At one point, school Police Chief Alan Kerstein, who was also there, said 29 school police officers patrolled the South Los Angeles campus and 12 more roamed nearby. Attendance at the 2,400-student school was down by almost half.

California Highway Patrol officers on Wednesday stepped up patrols along a stretch of the Harbor Freeway through South Los Angeles after two motorists in two weeks were fatally shot in midday attacks. The sprays of bullets on one of Southern California's most-traveled stretches of roadway occurred four miles apart and during roughly the same time: afternoon rush hour.

It's hard to say which is worse: the banged-up, twerp Toyota that cuts you off doing 90 mph, or the narcissistic Navigator that pounces on your tail and rides there demanding the road. They're both accidents in the making. And where is the California Highway Patrol when you need it? That zigzagging runt-mobile driven by a college kid could quickly be compacted if it hit the brakes after darting in front of a heavy-duty pickup towing a 3-ton boat.

The police chief of the state's second-largest city spent part of Christmas in a patrol car -- working the overnight shift as a gift to the rank and file. Chief William Lansdowne patrolled San Diego's Mid-City Division on the third watch, from 9 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., taking the place of another officer who was scheduled to work that shift. The chief did not make any arrests.

The Oakland Police Department is disbanding its mounted patrol, citing the need to assign more officers to deal with "sideshows" -- illegal car races that often turn violent. Residents say they will be sorry to see the end of the equestrian unit after nearly 25 years. Police recommended to the city administrator that the two full-time officers in the mounted unit be reassigned. A spokeswoman for the administrator said Friday that the recommendation has been approved.