Lt. William Moulder of the LA County Sheriff’s Department gave the Public Safety Commission a wide-ranging update on recent crime events and statistics in West Hollywood at their meeting Monday night.
He first addressed the spate of recent mailbox thefts that has plagued West Hollywood West this summer.
The department recently met with the postmaster about the problem, and Moulder revealed that the alleged thief or thieves do have backdoor access to the mailboxes, as neighbors had reported.
“People committing these crimes actually have keys,” Moulder said, “which is very problematic.”
He offered some practical suggestions for residents while the investigation proceeds.
“Make sure the building is secure and also pick up mail as quickly as possible and packages as quickly as possible,” he said.
He then turned his attention to Cookies, the controversial L.A. cannabis dispensary that neighbors say is bringing a criminal element to WeHo city limits.
There were few improvements to be reported.
“We are still getting complaints from neighbors in the area about vehicles illegally parked, people smoking marijuana on the streets and causing disturbances,” he said. “Just a week and a half ago, I was over in the neighborhood and talked to two people that live there and they expressed the same concerns that it is an ongoing issue.”
Moulder said deputies are monitoring the area but because the store is in Los Angeles there’s a limit to what can be done.
“There’s been a lot of things to try to mitigate the problem but at the end of day, is that a good idea? We just try to keep mitigating problems and leave it that way rather than finding the problem.”
Commissioner Robert B. Oliver noted that even increased law enforcement presence has affected the neighborhood.
“They say even with all this private security, it feels like living in a war zone,” he said.
Commissioner Kerri Balbone relayed an encounter that many West Hollywood residents may find familiar: the naked homeless person engaged in lewd conduct in public. She wondered why dispatch told her to remain in place until law enforcement arrived.
“I will tell you as a female walking alone in the city someone performing something like that I’m going to get as far away as possible,” she said.
Across the city, crime in June was down 14 percent compared with June of last year.
The year to date, Part I crimes are down more than 6 percent from 2020, which was already trending downward.
Crime in the city center dropped 51 percent, a response to a concerted effort by the department. Burglaries fell by half, while robberies grew 10 percent.
Last night public safety meeting was a mess !!!
Commissioner Roman – hire a babysitter
In my opinion this is one of the biggest issues in Los Angeles/West Hollywood. With inconsistent jagged borders, there are too many “not my job” type responses by the Sherriff and the LAPD. No one can be held accountable. These meetings should be organized and conducted with BOTH the LAPD and Sheriff simultaneously. Both cities have the same problems and this is the perfect example of why we can’t get things done. If they were both in the same room, a plan could then be discussed.
For people who are enraged about the Sheriff Dept not doing their jobs with our sidewalks, this is the task force to appeal to. I watched part of the meeting, and I do not think the scooter tickets issue was raised by anyone, at any time. I believe fines for jaywalking, or scooters/bikes on the sidewalk would fall under “misdemeanors/misc” above, and there were only 10 tickets issued in that category. There was one incident of a scooter hitting a pedestrian. The rest, were all automobiles. Lt. Moulder said it would be weeks before they get officers on foot, or… Read more »
It is also worth noting that the scooter program was not implemented until July 1st. So the scooter accident involved a privately-owned scooter. There was a geofence up for rented scooters during the time of this incident. When the report lists “an unsafe speed,” there is a speed cap on rented scooters, at 15 mph. A privately-owned scooter can go faster than that. I mention this, so people do not overreact, and think that this incident has anything to do with the scooter program. Also, without rented scooters on the streets in June, there were few tickets to hand out… Read more »
As previously mentioned, ineffectual at best. You recommend that the Public Safety Commission should be addressing this yet were Lt. Moulder and the commissioners frozen in their chairs unaware what was happening regardless of agendized items? The time to do something is when it is happening, not after it has progressively passed through numerous hands that seem less motivated by immediacy. Makes one wonder why city council members and commissioners are not alert to issues happening in real time. They appear preoccupied with sitting in their chairs, protecting their titles and future positions more than being aware of what is… Read more »
My point is, that people need to speak out. I believe this commission does take public comments. If people want some thing to change, they have to be active.
The bigger point is that City Council,Staff, their Commissioners and the Sheriff’s Department need to be held to a high degree of integrity. This is not happening in West Hollywood. Speaking out is admirable but not when upended by city obfuscation where the only answer or option is to sue the city. That is the lowest level and emblematic of why there is so little responsibility in the mainstream of life which affects everyone. This exponentially affects the country and the world.
So what is your answer? Complain about it in the WEHOVille comments section?
Black people have a difficult enough time because of systemic racism.
We -as a society- are trying to get more Black entrepreneurs (and plain old people) to reap some of the rewards from the carceral system that has been jailing Black and Brown bodies for stupid cannabis and other low-level crimes for decades. I tend to think – or I cannot help but think that the Cookies neighbors are exhibiting a lot of bad faith with their complaints.
Oh, please!
What utter nonsense. WEHO residents (like residents everywhere) have a right to be safe in their own neighborhoods. Cookies customers are not WEHO residents and have brought a lot of crime into the neighborhood. Stop making everything into a race issue. People should absolutely complain about criminals making us all unsafe in our own community. There is a noticeable increase in violent crimes such as robberies in and near West Hollywood, especially in the Melrose area. This crap didn’t happen as often in this neighborhood before that POS shop opened up. It’s even happening in broad daylight now. Stop falsely… Read more »
Ineffectual at best.
1-give me patrol cars since we live with more crime that data reports- guaranteed -located super close to LAPD on Willoughby. Things get counted oddly down here 2- easy to see how cars have thefts Just watch a few hours instead of sending 6–9 sheriffs to every every little I would have enjoyed someone show up when I was jumped now twice. But wassup? 3) how many trash cans are lit on fire and why? Or flipped into the streets? Or scooters passing stop signs in local areas. Yeah I live In a place needing more patrols like I had… Read more »
How is it the Sheriff can go into Venice to clean up the homeless issue but not LA to clean up a marijuana store nuisance?
Exactly! These two departments need to work together, especially where borders are blurred instead of pointing fingers at the other as “their” issue.