Placentia : New Center to Offer Contact With Police

The Placita Santa Fe Community Learning Center--the city’s ninth and the smallest--will open next month with its own twist.

It will be the only one with a police force. Well, not exactly.

About half of the 2,000-square-foot storefront will have several desks and possibly computers that will be used by police officers to fill out reports, make phone calls and answer questions from residents and business owners.

Although police officers will not work regular hours at the center, Police Chief Manuel Ortega said, their presence there is a big step toward his goal of community-oriented policing.

“The goal was set this year to develop community-oriented policing,” Ortega said. “To do that, you have to have access to the community.”

Ortega has pushed for the center since he was hired as chief three years ago.

Officer Rick Pascarella, one of two officers working overtime to turn the storefront into two separate rooms, said the center will give officers a much-needed place to fill out reports and make phone calls.

“Most of the officers I have talked to said they would use the center,” Pascarella said. “At night, we tend to write our reports in the (police car) rather than drive back to the station. This will give us a place to do that without leaving the area.”

Pascarella also said the community center would be less threatening to residents, who would be more likely to stop in there than to drive to the police station with questions and problems.

As police officers become familiar to residents, Ortega hopes, the relationship between the police and the Santa Fe community will improve.

“Instead of the only contact between officers and residents coming from incidents, the officers will see residents on a day-to-day basis and gain a greater understanding of the community,” Ortega said.

The center, which will offer recreational and other programs, is being paid for by a $19,000 grant from the county Housing and Community Development Agency. The city has signed a two-year lease for the space, which is next to the Tlaquepaque Restaurant on Santa Fe Avenue.