‘Club Dev’ Is Devonshire Division’s Pride and Ploy : How Police Cope With Life in the Posh Lane

Welcome to Club Dev, not to be confused with those Caribbean or South Seas vacation resorts known for their tropical beaches, tanned bodies, free wine and late-night discos.

Serving the mostly upper-middle-income communities of Granada Hills, Chatsworth, Northridge and a slice of Canoga Park in the northwest San Fernando Valley, Club Dev is equipped with the modern amenities. It has a weight room, lounge, jogging path, heliport, newly carpeted offices, overnight facilities and a state-of-the-art communications system.

But the members carry guns, and the overnight facilities are behind bars.

How Name Originated

“Club Dev” is the nickname in the Los Angeles Police Department for its Devonshire Division.

The name cropped up at first as other officers ribbed their colleagues at Devonshire about their upper-crust territory, with its comparatively low crime rate. Eventually, Devonshire officers adopted the name for their private athletic club at the station.

Legend has it that the nickname originated when two officers, after they passed their probationary period, donated a large wooden “Club Dev” sign to the station’s weight room, said Detective Ray Romero, a 23-year veteran stationed in Devonshire.

But the true story has to do with officers practicing on new video display terminals installed at stations and in patrol cars in 1983, he said.

Officers from other Valley stations would sign off electronic messages to Devonshire officers by saying, “Good luck in Club Dev” or, “Keep it up out there in Club Dev,” Romero said.

References to the station as a “retirement village” and “country club” are typical of the teasing still directed Devonshire’s way by officers from the Foothill, Van Nuys, North Hollywood and West Valley divisions.

The statistics give the joking some support. Through April 14 of this year, Devonshire had 3,098 serious crimes, the fewest of the city’s 18 police divisions.

In all of 1985, only the Harbor Division, with 9,789 serious crimes, had fewer than Devonshire, with 10,291, a department spokeswoman said. But the Harbor Division is roughly half the size of Devonshire and has about 35,000 fewer residents.

By contrast, in 1985 the Rampart Division had 23,441 serious crimes; Central had 22,021, and Van Nuys 20,970, the spokeswoman said.

Of the more than 25 murders in the Valley this year, only one occurred in Devonshire’s territory. It is the only Valley station that has not found it necessary to establish a special unit to combat street gangs.

Danger Still Exists

“Because crime is lower here than any other place in the city, officers are not confronted with continually hazardous situations,” agreed Capt. Albert M. Fried, commander of the station since January.

But danger is not completely eliminated. Since the station opened at Etiwanda Avenue and Devonshire Street in 1973, two officers, Zaltko N. Sintic and Paul Verna, were fatally shot in the line of duty.

Statistics disclose that the Devonshire Division’s sector is the safest area in the city for citizens. The station, with 179 active officers, has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, emergency response times in the city, Fried said.

“You call me in an emergency, and we can be there within five minutes,” he said. “Let anybody shake a stick at that.”

When Devonshire residents make urgent calls for help, they will see a police officer more than two minutes earlier than residents elsewhere in the city, according to department statistics.

In May, Devonshire officers responded to emergencies in an average of 7.6 minutes, contrasted with the city’s average of 9.7 minutes and the Valley’s average of 9.4 minutes.

“If you’re going to call police, the safest place to be is in Devonshire, because you’re going to see a policeman,” said Detective Romero.

“You might not be dead when we get there.”

The bottom line, Fried said, is how Devonshire residents perceive the degree of their safety. “If they feel safe, then I’m doing effective law enforcement,” he said.

Capt. Mark Stevens, former patrol captain in Devonshire and now in charge of the Valley Traffic Division, said that police work can be more difficult when officers have time to patrol than when they merely run from call to call as they do in the busier divisions.

When officers are not responding to calls in Devonshire, they have time to patrol problem areas, said Sgt. Mike Krecioch, a night supervisor. That means officers can sharpen their police skills and observe more crimes in progress rather than just respond after the fact. As a result, they become better officers, Krecioch said.

“Three, four, five, 10 years ago, Devonshire was a much slower division than the other divisions, but we had time to do some real police work,” he said.

Area of Concern

The division does have special areas of concern, including the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue area in Northridge. The blighted lower-income area, known for its drug sales and street incidents, has been a crime sore surrounded by suburbia.

But in December, the department formed a special task force of 13 officers to patrol Bryant-Vanalden. And as of May 25, crime that police believe they have some control over, such as robberies, burglaries and car thefts, was down by 22%, Fried said.

Another special problem occurs in the summertime, when Devonshire officers try to keep tabs on “a floating party of kids that moves from location to location, where they drink beer and hang out in front of people’s homes,” Stevens said. “That doesn’t show up in statistics.”

Fried said that whereas Devonshire’s turf may not be as active as some, the population of the northwest Valley is expected to grow 16% by the end of 1990. “At a point in time, I’ll be just as congested as everybody else,” he predicted.

The division has built a citizens’ Neighborhood Watch program of 8,000 members, Fried said. Members from the organized neighborhoods also are being trained to respond to earthquakes and other disasters, he said.

Although Stevens is credited with developing a fitness program that was organized as the Club Dev Athletic Assn., it was Krecioch who first began pushing a positive image of Club Dev.

Turning Teasing Around

“For a while there, things were getting a little touchy, and the guys resented it,” Krecioch said. “We were getting teased, so I wanted to make something positive out of it.”

Krecioch ordered Club Dev T-shirts and caps and helped schedule golf tournaments, baseball games and track events.

Stevens said that when he arrived later from the West Valley Division, “I knew there was a Club Dev philosophy in the division, and it was easy to direct that toward physical fitness” to increase motivation and reduce work injuries.

Three times a week, the officers were given 45 minutes at the beginning of their shift to lift weights, jog and practice self-defense techniques instead of sitting through the traditional and sometimes boring roll call.

By pooling the resources of officers, area businesses, and Police Athletic League Supporters, the officers refurbished the weight room--and up went the sign.

Three years later, some Devonshire officers still wear their Club Dev T-shirts and caps at athletic events, and are unruffled by kidding from other officers about Club Dev.

“I don’t think it’s brought down morale more than it’s made morale better,” said Romero, who helped collect money for the club. “We’re dedicated, and we go out and do our job.”

Romero said he would not be surprised if some of the Devonshire officers wear their T-shirts in this Saturday’s relay race against the officers of the Foothill Division--nicknamed Club Foot.