Official seal of City of Lakewood (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Rico Dizon
The Lakewood City Council approved the $129,201 distribution of the 2013-14 State for the Citizen’s Options for Public Safety (COPS) grant during the Council’s regular meeting last May 14.
Steve Croft Mayor of Lakewood said, “In our city , we’ve used this law enforcement grant on similar program in the past with positive results. I am glad we’ll have the extra funds again this coming fiscal year to continue our priority of making Lakewood one of the safest communities in the region.”
Captain Merrill Ladenheim, Commander of the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station, submitted the recommendation which is broken down into three areas of concerns and consists of an accumulated total of 1,746 additional hours in deputy patrol time. These three COPS missions include the following:
Location of Lakewood, CA in Los Angeles County. Modified from stock Wikipedia images. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Summer Park Program
This will provide 352 hours of additional deputy time patrolling city parks during the busy summer season.
Special Events
This will provide 614 hours of additional deputy time patrolling high-attendance events and locations, such as the Pan American Festival, Civic Center Block Party, and the Lakewood Center mall during the busy holiday shopping season.
Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Suppression
This will provide 780 hours of additional deputy time to focus on specific “hot spot” issues that develop over the year which could include residential burglaries, saturation patrol or enhanced traffic enforcement.
COPS program fund allocation is conducted every year by the State of California specifically aimed at enhancing front-line enforcement. Cities are required to reassess how they will spend the grant, a responsibility that the city usually passes on to the top law enforcement official of the city.
