ATTORNEY MISREPRESENTS L.A. CRIME-TRACKING SYSTEM.

Byline: Maureen Siegel

I was astonished at the inaccuracies and misinformation in the Opinion article headlined ``Lies, more lies, and PACMIS,'' by attorney Harriet Bilford, who not only painted an amazingly misleading picture of how PACMIS (the Police Arrest and Crime Management Information System) is used by the City Attorney's Office, but misstated facts relating to implementation of the Katz bill, the mapping program and even the notion that the names of convicted ``johns'' should be publicized.

FALCON, our nationally recognized model of community policing and neighborhood empowerment, has been using PACMIS data on arrests at a specific location for six years - but only as a starting point.

No property owner has ever been sent a letter asking him to cooperate with police in remedying problems at his property or asked to attend a City Attorney's Office hearing based solely on PACMIS data. In all cases, the underlying arrest reports were pulled and reviewed to determine if a link to criminal activity could be proved.

We use the narcotics abatement law to take action against property owners only in situations where they ignore the presence of drug trafficking and fail to take reasonable measures to curb gang and drug activity. Neglect, whether willful or benign, has the same end result.

In today's Los Angeles, public safety can be assured only if police, prosecutors and the public work together and accept their individual responsibilities.

We have never advised the police not to implement the Katz bill, which allows them to arrest suspected drug dealers and prostitutes for loitering with the intent to engage in criminal activity. In fact, this legislation was drafted in the City Attorney's Office. We wrote it, we supported it, and we provided Assemblyman Richard Katz with experts to testify before legislative committees to ensure its passage.

We have already trained more than 425 police officers in its effective use and have scheduled an additional five training sessions next month. LAPD representatives from throughout the city will attest to our commitment to the full implementation of this law.

The mapping program requires, as a condition of probation, that convicted prostitutes be prohibited from being within a designated area. This program was instituted at the Hollywood Courthouse in 1993 at the request of the City Attorney's Office.

We researched the law, drafted the trial briefs and convinced many bench officers of its legality. We have successfully argued for its implementation at the Van Nuys Courthouse, as well as other areas of the city. We update lists of all defendants currently on mapping conditions and other probationary conditions to facilitate the LAPD's effective utilization of this information. More importantly, we vigorously pursue probation violations based on map conditions and routinely ask for jail time for these violations.

Finally, with regard to publicizing the names of convicted johns who solicit acts of prostitution, this is not a new idea. It has been tried before with no real impact. While there well may be some liability concerns associated with this approach, that is not the primary reason for not rushing to the nearest newspaper or television station with the names of convicted johns. It is an idea the LAPD has rejected as too costly to implement, and that is the real reason it is not being done.

We will continue to use arrest and crime statistics to target properties for enforcement, as well as use the anti-loitering statute we sponsored and the mapping program, because protecting the quality of life in our neighborhoods remains the top priority of the City Attorney's Office.