Note: This article first appeared on Los Angeleno and is shared with their permission in partnership with UncoverLA. You can subscribe for news and features from Los Angeleno here.
By Juliet Rylah
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled the LAPD's new Community Safety Partnership (CSP) Bureau, which takes CSP programs already in place throughout L.A. and expands them citywide. LAPD Capt. Emada Tingirides will be promoted to deputy chief and will oversee the bureau.
The Community Safety Partnership began in 2011 in four public housing developments in Los Angeles, placing officers in five-year assignments to develop relationships with those communities.
"This new bureau makes [CSP] both a program and a philosophy," Garcetti said. "It's a set of policies, procedures and people, but also an approach to how we police."
Councilmembers Michelle Rodriguez, Curren Price, Joe Buscaino — who used to be an LAPD officer — and Marqueece Harris-Dawson joined Garcetti for the announcement. The councilmembers praised the CSP programs that have launched in their own districts.
A year-long evaluation by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs looked at CSP programs at Nickerson Gardens in Watts and Ramona Gardens in Boyle Heights. The study — in which Buscaino served on the advisory committee along with former LAPD Assistant Chief Sandy Jo MacArthur and Gerald Chaleff, former special assistant for the LAPD — found CSP "effectively works by building trust and relationships between CSP officers and community residents and stakeholders." According to the researchers, CSP improved resident perceptions of safety, reduced dangerous conditions that "historically fueled violent crime and enhanced gang control" and, that by disrupting gang intimidation and control of public spaces, residents were better able to enjoy those spaces.
