Q&A | Capt. Bill Moulder of the WeHo Sheriff’s Station

Capt. Bill Moulder of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station sat down with WEHOville recently to answer a wide range of questions on public safety in West Hollywood and to share some personal insights with our readers.

WEHOville: Where did you grow up?

Moulder: I was born in Arleta and then moved around for a few years.

WEHOville: So, what was it like growing up in Los Angeles?

Moulder: Growing up here was unique. I mean, it wasn’t like any other small county. Despite being in LA, I think my experience was different from a lot of other places.

WEHOville: Did you ever hang out in West Hollywood?

Moulder: No, not really. In high school, we used to go out to Westwood. That was the place for people to hang out at the time, not West Hollywood. Westwood was the area.

WEHOville: When did you come out?

Moulder: I came out when I was about 24 or 25 years old.

WEHOville: What was it like back then? Was it as accepting, or did you have any fear about coming out?

Moulder: No, not really. My friends and family were supportive. I never had an issue or expected any. It was more about finding the right time for me, not about concern for what friends or family would think.

WEHOville: When did you join the force?

Moulder: I joined in 1991.

WEHOville: Are you happy City Council restored the deputies they removed last year?

Moulder: Yes, very much so. I believe it has definitely boosted morale. More deputies mean better safety for our community, which is always my recommendation. That’s my job and my area of expertise.

WEHOville: What do you think convinced them to backtrack and restore the deputies?

Moulder: I can’t speak for others, but our number one focus is community safety. We always recommend more resources so we can better serve our community. Having more deputies out and about keeps people safer. Even if it’s just two more patrol cars on the street, it can deter people from committing crimes. Many years ago, Times Square in New York City was rife with crime. They cleaned it up, and now it’s really nice with a significant police presence. Our deputies do an outstanding job. We have special teams that are very active in the community. When they’re not responding to a call, they’re patrolling around doing proactive preventative police work. Our goal is to prevent something from happening rather than cleaning it up afterward. Just the visual of a patrol car can be enough to deter someone from doing something wrong in Hollywood.

WEHOville: What’s it like with the new sheriff and what’s your relationship with him?

Moulder: It’s wonderful, he’s a fantastic guy. I was friendly with Jim McDonald, the previous sheriff, and I really like our current sheriff. I think he has a good vision for our department. He’s trying to develop good relationships with the board, the Office of Inspector General, and our Civilian Oversight Commission. He’s also doing a lot of outreach to communities.

WEHOville: I was talking to a security guard at CVS on Beverly, and he said that you guys were much more on point than LAPD when it comes to dealing with issues. What’s the protocol for dealing with shoplifting?

Moulder: When a crime is committed, we take a report. Depending on the type of crime, it’s up to the victim if they want to file a report. But for any crime, it’s important for us to have an understanding of the types of crimes that are happening and their frequency. This helps us address those issues. We run at least one operation a week focusing on particular issues.

WEHOville: What are some concerning trends in crime?

Moulder: What worries me most is that people feel unsafe. We want to do everything we can to make people feel safe in their community. Robberies always concern me. We try to focus on preventing these kinds of things from happening. The city is getting 39 ALPR cameras throughout the city, which will help us catch criminals.

WEHOville: Are drones in the works for you?

Moulder: We’re looking to do a pilot program for aerial first responders. We’ve appeared before our Civilian Oversight Commission and one of their ad hoc committees that looks at technology and surveillance. The city is also going to have an item come back to Council about a technology safety issue.

WEHOville: What about fixed surveillance cameras?

Moulder: I believe in people’s privacy, and no cameras or drones should be looking into people’s homes. But on our main thoroughfares, there should be fixed surveillance cameras. These cameras help us catch criminals and prevent crime.

WEHOville: Can you say ‘Look for this license plate’?

Moulder: Yes, we can do that. We can search the system for a specific type of car and license plate. It’s a very effective method.

WEHOville: How do the drones work?

Moulder: There are two parts to the drone system we would like to employ. The first is responding to serious calls. If we had a robbery in West Hollywood, we could launch the drone from the highest area, which is optimal because the drone doesn’t have to use a lot of power gaining altitude. The drone can get to the call and start relaying information, like the direction a suspect is heading, before deputies arrive. It’s a wonderful tool that provides additional transparency and accountability. I also foresee using small portable drones in police cars. If a deputy arrives at a call and a suspect takes off running, rather than chasing, we can use the drone to follow them. It’s safer for the deputy and our community.

WEHOville: So the drones wouldn’t be deployed for routine patrol?

Moulder: I think they could be, but right now we perceive them as responding to emergency calls. If we put in fixed cameras along Santa Monica Boulevard, then we don’t really need a drone for routine control. Most of these will be reactionary. If there’s a call, then we go and look at it.

WEHOville: What do you think will be the larger group in the future, those who want more surveillance or those who don’t?

Moulder: I think at the end of the day, we’re already on camera. So we might as well use this technology to benefit us and keep us safer. There have been multiple crimes here in West Hollywood where the car drove near or around Beverly Hills and they caught it on their ALPR. We used that to catch the person. So it’s already been demonstrated as a useful tool, and we don’t even have it. Because of their system, we were able to find and arrest the people that robbed folks at Level. They admitted to a robbery in Beverly Hills and the responding officers were able to use their technology platform to locate and arrest those folks. Those were the same people that committed the robbery here, so we were able to file charges as well because of their great technology system.

WEHOville: Do you anticipate more political agitators as the election year comes up?

Moulder: Certainly, we’ve seen the past couple of election cycles have been contentious. We expect there to be more contention as we move into 2024. But we’re not involved in the politics or agendas. We’re here to keep people safe, so whatever is necessary to do that, we will do. If things rise to a level where we need to step in, we will.

WEHOville: What about those flyers were posted recently? The ones that say “Queers Bash Back.” Apparently, that was an Antifa product. Are we heading toward a situation like Portland?

Moulder: Well, I would say no to that. West Hollywood is not a community that’s going to head in that direction. People here want to be safe in their community, they want to be able to walk their dog, go to a restaurant, live their lives safely, freely, and happily. When we see things like those flyers, we follow up on it. We register it, make a note of where it is, and our folks at our major crimes and threat assessment units are also following up.

WEHOville: City Council was looking at making certain offenses a low priority, basically asking you all not to enforce certain crimes. What’s the status of that?

Moulder: You’re talking about low level traffic stops. Some cities like Berkeley and Philadelphia have outlawed certain level of stops like expired registration. But here they just said we’ll put low focus on those. Prior to that, they had an item where they said put low focus on sex workers and massage parlors, unless it’s a human trafficking issue.

WEHOville: So what does low focus entail?

Moulder: Rather than doing active enforcement on those things, we put our focus and our assets on other things. If we get a complaint, we would follow up on it. If there’s an allegation of human trafficking, that’s a different issue, there’s not a low focus on that. We have folks in our department that handle those types of investigations. For here, generally for a station level with patrol and our detectives, those kinds of investigations usually are left for our headquarters detectives because they have the assets and undercover folks that can do those investigations. If there were some human trafficking issue, we have brought them in the past to address those.

WEHOville: What about Block by Block? What’s your relationship with them?

Moulder: Block by Block has been here for almost two decades. They started as security ambassadors on Sunset Boulevard in 2003. I think they’re fantastic. They don’t replace the sheriff, but the more eyes and ears out there, the better.

WEHOville: Have you seen any effect since their hiring spree?

Moulder: We do track the calls that come in from Block by Block, but we didn’t track them before. So it’s hard to make a comparison. But certainly, with more eyes and ears out there, if they see something and they call in, which is fantastic, that will increase call volume to the station.

WEHOville: Would you want them to have greater abilities, like being able to detain people or to carry firearms?

Moulder: I know that’s been a big debate, but I think they have their particular mission and their company is not interested in expanding that. Each group is mission-specific and they have a mission based on what Block by Block is.

WEHOville: What’s your take on the CARE team?

Moulder: I think they’re great. If they can go and contact a homeless individual who has a mental health issue and get them resources and help, that’s wonderful. That’s a huge help because that same person, if not contacted, might deteriorate in their mental health state and end up committing a crime.

WEHOville: What about the new hires? Have you found people for the PIO position?

Moulder: We are still working on that. They just passed the budget, so we have to work out those details with the department. In the interim, we’ll have somebody from the station taking care of those tasks because I think it’s really important.