BRATTON PRAISES ATTACK ON GANGS CRIME IN VALLEY DOWN OVERALL.

Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer

SYLMAR - In his first major status report to the City Council, LAPD Chief William Bratton said Wednesday night that crime is down overall in the San Fernando Valley this year due to efforts by the LAPD's Valley Bureau to attack the problem with support from community groups and other law enforcement agencies.

Bratton acknowledged that gang-related homicides have risen in the Valley through September but other gang-related crimes had fallen.

Bratton attributed successful efforts to Deputy Chief Ron Bergmann's crackdown on gangs in the Valley, which Bratton would like to see citywide.

``Chief Bergmann has been applauded, I think deservedly so, for the comprehensive approach he is taking to the issue in the Valley,'' Bratton said.

In particular, Bratton praised community policing efforts targeting the gang problem.

``He liked what he saw in the Valley and wants to take it to the rest of the city,'' Bergmann said.

City Council President Alex Padilla had asked Bratton to address the council at its meeting at Mission College specifically to outline how he and the Los Angeles Police Department will combat violent street gang crimes in areas such as the northeast San Fernando Valley.

Police estimate there are more than 20,000 gang members in the Valley and say nearly half of the 94 killings in the region this year were gang-related.

Bratton offered few new strategies Wednesday for fighting the gang violence, except pushing his plans to build a computer crime tracking system called COMSTAT.

COMSTAT will replace the FASTRAC computer system that the chief called a poor imitation. COMSTAT was used by Bratton to bring crime down when he was the commissioner of the New York Police Department in the mid-1990s.

He said that once COMSTAT is up and running in the next several months it will help the Los Angeles Police Department fight gang crime. The information from COMSTAT will also be available to the public.

``What do we have to hide?'' he said. ``If a crime trend appears in your neighborhood, I want you to know about it.''

City Council members asked questions about COMSTAT and officer deployment, and indicated they were behind his efforts so far.

``You're going to get the support,'' said West San Fernando Valley Councilman Dennis Zine.

Only Councilman Nate Holden, who has been a critic of Bratton since he was confirmed last month, took the chief to task for not having more answers.

``Before you seemed like you knew everything,'' Holden said.

Bratton responded that he was as prepared as he could be after 18 days on the job.

The council met in Sylmar as part of its effort to hold occasional meetings away from City Hall and in the evening, to make local government more accessible to city residents. The council held a meeting in Canoga Park in April.

Before Wednesday's meeting, Bratton showed support for another of his top issues, graffiti. He joined Padilla and others to present surplus pickup trucks once used by the city's General Services Department for anti-graffiti programs in Pacoima, Sylmar and Sun Valley.

The volunteer Graffiti Busters programs in those neighborhoods will pay $1 each for the trucks.

Since becoming chief, Bratton - also formerly police commissioner in Boston - has said fighting gangs is his top priority.

To succeed in that fight, he has said the LAPD will need cooperation from the public which he expects to come as community policing efforts are expanded.

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L.A. Police Chief William Bratton delivers his first major status report Wednesday to City Council members in Sylmar.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer