Community Policing / Northridge, Chatsworth

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: Les Lovatt, Devonshire Division, (818) 908-4011

THE AREA: Lovatt’s beat includes million-dollar houses on the north and low-income apartments on the south, with many retail areas, including Northridge Fashion Center, in-between. “It’s real diversified from top to bottom,” he says. Car theft and burglary are problems throughout the area, while street-corner drug sales plague some neighborhoods in the southern end, he says.