Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands : Crime: Neighborhood hires a private security firm after women claim Councilman Alatorre was indifferent to their concerns about police protection. He denies calling problems ‘insignificant.’

HIGHLAND PARK — Feeling spurned by Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre who, they allege, said their problems were “insignificant,” two Highland Park women have taken their concerns about rising crime in their neighborhood into their own hands.

And with support from at least 30 other neighbors, longtime San Pascual Avenue residents Gloria Clingerman and Christine Aparicio Chaulsett have hired a private security company to patrol the area.

The two women said they were forced to take action after a meeting with Alatorre last month. According to the pair, he closed their conversation by saying: “Your problems are insignificant.”

Even the demeanor of the 14th District councilman showed disregard for their problems, the women said. During the session, they said, he leaned back on his swivel chair with his legs spread apart and propped on the desk, they said.

“It’s embarrassing,” said Clingerman, 37, a community activist. “We don’t mean nothing to him. We campaigned for him and this is what we got.

“It (the ‘insignificant’ comment) stuck in my head.”

Alatorre has flatly denied that he ever uttered the word “insignificant” during the meeting with his two constituents.

“I never would say that to anybody. I would never downgrade their problems,” the eight-year council veteran said. “I’ve worked with these people for many years. They’re being childish. I don’t know what their motivation is.”

As for the women’s complaints about his casual posture during their meeting, the councilman, who served 14 years in the Assembly before being elected to the council, said:

“If they were offended by it, they should tell me.”

The two neighbors continue to stand by their version of the meeting. And, spurred by their anger, they held a “town meeting” last Saturday after spending four weekends hand-delivering 350 notices of the session to their San Pascual Avenue neighborhood of about 800 people.

In May, the residents of the area were informed by the community liaison officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Northeast Division that their already understaffed patrols may be spread even thinner in the near future.

Northeast Division Lt. Steve Twohy said there have been months of preliminary talks about drawing new boundary lines between the division and neighboring Rampart Division, the LAPD’S most crime-ridden area. That would mean Northeast officers would cover a larger territory, further spreading its resources.

“It’s just been preliminary talks. Nothing is planned,” Twohy said. “We have minimal resources, but we try to allocate them the best way we can without giving up on one community for another.

“Everyone is concerned about crime. We need twice as many officers as we got.”

Clingerman and Chaulsett say they sympathize with the LAPD’s plight, but that does not mean they will resign themselves to living in fear in their own homes. This is the neighborhood where both women grew up and where Clingerman is raising six children ranging in age from 3 to 20.

Within the last three years, residents say, the neighborhood has been subjected to increasing displays of social ills--prostitution in the parks, people urinating in the open and the peddling of drugs on street corners, to name a few.

“I feel very sad for the seniors,” Chaulsett said. “I went to school with their kids. Now (the elderly) can’t enjoy the park and they can’t walk to the market at night.”

Putting aside their disheartening meeting with Alatorre, the women believe they have found a solution to their growing problem: pooling neighbors’ money to hire a private security firm to supplement the police.

“We are going to fight,” Chaulsett said. “We are not just going to settle for stopping the crime. We want to improve the neighborhood.”

Chaulsett, 41, a schoolteacher, said she is thinking about running for Alatorre’s council seat.

“This is my home and I’m angry about how things have run,” she said. “I’ve lived here all my life. And I’ve seen what it can be and now see what it has become.”

The women believe the town meeting marked the beginning of a change.

About 70 people, including Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) and representatives of Select Patrol, a Pasadena-based security firm, showed up. As a result, about half of the residents present signed up, at a monthly cost of $15 each, to hire the firm’s patrol services. Select officials said they expect there will be more subscribers.

Alatorre’s Highland Park aide, Juanita Martinez, said she was aware of the meeting but had a doctor’s appointment and could not attend. The councilman’s press deputy, Luisa Campano, said she had assigned someone else from the office to go.

Alatorre, 50, said, “We weren’t invited to the meeting,” explaining why no one from his office showed up.

Polanco, who divides his week between Sacramento and Los Angeles, said he was impressed by Saturday’s turnout.

“Communities have to unite and get it clear and hold us politicians accountable,” Polanco said. “We should be here. We are their servants and they support us. If you don’t, then you don’t deserve to be elected.”

The assemblyman added that crime reports from his constituents have come in spurts over the years. He attributes the three-year crime wave to the ailing economy and record-high unemployment. Communities, in growing numbers, are turning to private security patrol companies, he said.

“This tells me that people are willing to pay for a service if they know there is a direct benefit,” the assemblyman said.

Polanco favors the idea of the private sector supplementing public law enforcement.

“They can play a very significant role,” he said, “observing patterns in the neighborhoods that the public won’t come out to report for fear of retaliation.”

Meanwhile, Polanco attributes the current California economic ills that result in depleting services to Prop. 13 and the Gann initiative, the late 1970s laws that cut property taxes and established that a two-thirds majority vote was required for tax increases.

“We need to revisit the issue, even for just a couple of years,” he said. “But I’m afraid we haven’t struck bottom (in services) for people to see it.”

Eric M. Smith, operations manager for Select Patrol, said the company has been patrolling the Highland Park neighborhood since Monday. He declined to specify how many officers are deployed in the San Pascual Avenue area in marked cars at a given time. But the firm, which primarily serves the San Gabriel Valley, is staffed with 35 uniformed and armed security officers.

The officers’ main function is to report criminal activities to both residents and police. They are not authorized to intervene in a crime, but “can shoot to protect” themselves, Smith said.

San Pascual Avenue resident Charles Hand, 80, is sold on the idea of a private security patrol. He and his family have lived on the avenue for 42 years. He recalled that, many years ago, when his young fraternal twins were missing for a time, everyone in the neighborhood dropped what they were doing to look for the boy and girl, who were found safe, he said.

“Now, I don’t think they’d be even interested,” Hand said. “It’s getting to a point where (a private security patrol) is necessary. We don’t go out walking at night. My wife is afraid.”