Extra Help Will Be at Hand for LAPD During Convention

Across Southern California, police officers and other law enforcement officials are preparing for this month’s Democratic National Convention, mobilizing or at least standing by in the event that the Los Angeles Police Department calls for help.

Doing their part in the large-scale security effort planned for the convention, nearly two dozen California Highway Patrol personnel from Ventura County will be deployed to Los Angeles for the four-day political pep rally.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies and Santa Barbara authorities also will be available if needed, as will federal and local authorities from across Los Angeles County and beyond.

Aside from the LAPD and CHP forces staffing the convention, more than 500 Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies will provide security for delegates’ transportation between hotels and Staples Center, the downtown arena where the convention will be staged, said Sheriff’s Department Capt. Michael Kenyon. The department will also station tactical platoons in strategic spots throughout Southern California, he said.

If things were to escalate beyond the capacity of those resources, Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca could ask for additional law enforcement support from 41 municipal agencies, said Assistant Chief Stan Roberts, a mutual aid coordinator in the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. By state law, it is the county sheriff who has the authority to summon those officers.

And “if all those police officers in Los Angeles County can’t hang with this, then we go to the neighboring counties,� Kenyon said.

Orange County would be first on that list, followed by Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and finally the state and the National Guard. Gov. Gray Davis would have to give the go-ahead for the National Guard to be deployed in the city, as it was in 1992 when Los Angeles was consumed by riots after the first Rodney G. King beating trial.

The worst-case-scenario plan for the convention is much like the one put in place in anticipation of mayhem on New Year’s Eve, authorities said. That occasion passed virtually without incident, and officials never turned to the regional mutual aid system.

“The rule is you use up all of your resources before you go asking for help, because it’s expensive,� Roberts said.

The Ventura County contingent will include 17 CHP officers, three sergeants and one captain out of the county’s 95-member staff, said Capt. Richard Owens. No vacations have been canceled and the office will use overtime to augment normal schedules, he added.

Meanwhile, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies and firefighters will be ready to respond to mutual aid requests in case serious trouble breaks out during the convention, which begins Aug. 14.

Exact numbers of officers were not available from Orange and Santa Barbara counties, but Los Angeles officials said they are confident that those agencies have enough people standing by to fill any need.

More than 35,000 delegates and members of the media will come to Los Angeles for the national convention, which is expected to culminate with the nomination of Vice President Al Gore as the party’s presidential candidate.

Joining them will be throngs of activists, protesting to make their point on a variety of issues from police brutality and capital punishment to environmental causes and gay rights.

Los Angeles law enforcement agencies are mobilizing for the event, mindful of disruptive protests that occurred at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle last December and the World Bank meeting in Washington, D.C., in April.

Protesters in Seattle shattered windows, trashed streets and caused property damage totaling $15 million. In Washington, however, a large and visible show of force by police helped keep the protests peaceful with little damage.

A small uprising in downtown Los Angeles after the Lakers basketball championship game prompted business owners to plead with law enforcement to be better prepared for any unrest this month.

But it would take a crisis on the scale of the 1992 riots, which resulted in 55 deaths and $1 billion in property damage, before police personnel from outlying counties would be asked to help to keep the peace, said Roberts.

“It just depends on how things unfold and where they occur,� he said.

The last time Los Angeles needed an assist from neighboring counties was during the 1992 riots. After that event, LAPD officials were widely criticized for taking too long to ask for help. The National Guard eventually did take up positions throughout much of Los Angeles, but it took more than a day of looting and violence before troops were summoned and many anxious hours more before they were deployed.

Once on the streets, some had only a single cartridge in their rifles because of an ammunition shortage, but the the Guard’s mere presence had a calming effect in many riot-torn areas.

“The difference we have today with the Democratic National Convention is that it’s a planned event, so you know a little bit ahead of time what you’re getting into,� Roberts said.