KTLA News: "New LAPD foot patrol beat on Figueroa Street" (1978)

[Music] I think they just like the personable uh approach. approach they have with you. They can come up and talk with you anytime they'd like and talk about anything and you're not there at their house handling a specific problem and I think they enjoy just being able to talk to you. Now, >> you'll be working alone. Does that present any problems? >> Oh, I prefer to have a partner, but uh I think I've made enough friends out there where I am in need, somebody will come to my assistance. The only time I wouldn't say I'd ra >> Well, I I can stand it. >> This is an interview with Assistant Chief Lewis Borick. >> What are some of the advantages of having a beat patrolman? Well, it puts the officer on the street walking in the vicinity of people who pass him uh frequently. He has a closer relationship with them. They have a closer relationship with him. Also, it puts him more in tune with the kinds of crimes that occur in shopping centers, the shoplifting, the uh the property destruction, the thefts from automobiles, uh the person snatch. He's there. He shows a presence which deters crime. >> How many foot patrolmen are there now in the city? Well, we have a a good number down in the central city area. Uh but from that point out, very few. Uh we have down in the downtown area, there probably are close to 80 footbeat officers down there. But then when you go out from there, very few. We have this officer, we have uh one officer working over in West Los Angeles and Westwood. Uh we have uh some officers working in Hollywood. Now, >> how many do you plan to add? We plan to add in the immediate future an additional 13 beyond officer Marcato. Uh we're going to put them in different sections of the city where the problems are somewhat similar to the problems we detected on Figueroa between Avenue 50 and 60. uh the shoplifting, the property destruction, the thefts, uh purse snatching, uh uh crimes which uh primarily involve uh those people who frequent shopping centers and leave their property unprotected. This is an interview with Richard Micardo, who's the foot patrolman out here. What are some of the things you're going to be looking for as you walk the beat? Oh, probably. I fairly familiar with the area and I know that certain areas have different problems and we've got a lot of parking lot areas where a lot of person snatches have been going down and thefts from the vehicles and I'm going to concentrate most of my time in in the areas that I'm aware of and the detectives aware of is having the most problems, most activity. >> This is not the first time you've worked with foot patrol. Um, what are some of the advantages you see for the people in the uh in the area? Okay. [Music] I was asking about used to be a lady that lived there. She was blind and she had a two men posting as policemen come to her house. She lives right here. And uh they uh said they caught a little kid in their front in her front yard that had a lot of money with them and they wanted her to check her possessions to see if she had her money still in the purse. So they went in with her and she opens her purse, says, "I still have my money." And they ask her to go check something in another room. If she does, they grab her money and leave. This happened last