What:
Cruiser Task Force and Press Conference

When:
Friday, May 3, 2002
8:00 p.m.

Where:
Hollywood Community Police Station
1358 N. Wilcox Avenue

Los Angeles: On May 3, 2002, the Los Angeles Police department (LAPD) will conduct a joint task force with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), in an effort to deal with the cruising problem in the Hollywood Area. In recent months, the cruising problem has increased to the point that traffic along Sunset Boulevard from Highland to Sweetzer has become gridlocked. Besides the problems associated with the traffic congestion, there has been a large influx of gangmembers into the Hollywood area. The LAPD has recently seen an increase in violent gang crimes associated with this problem, and steps must be taken to curb this violence.

To deal with this problem the LAPD has committed 30 officers; the CHP has committed 16 officers, and the LASD eight officers. There is no doubt that these 54 officers will have an immediate and significant impact due to their focus of strict traffic enforcement by writing citations and impounding vehicles. A similar operation was conducted in

Hollywood area approximately six years ago and it was extremely successful.

The briefing for all agencies will be held at the roll call room at Hollywood Community Police Station. The Command Post for this event will be located at the Bank of America, 7800 West Sunset Boulevard. The Incident Commander for this event will be Captain Patrick Findley, Commanding Officer, Hollywood Operations Support Division. If additional information is needed, he may be contacted at 213-485-6415.

The briefing will be open to the Media and a press conference will he held immediately after the briefing in front of Hollywood Community Police Station.

This press release was prepared by Officer Esther Mya Pe, Media Relations Section 213-485-3586.