BUS COPS SEE WORK PAYING OFF BUS COPS PUT CRIME-FIGHTING SKILLS ON THE LINE.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

Police called him ``Too Tall,'' a 6-foot-tall career pickpocket who had been a thorn in the side of the LAPD's Transit Bus Division for years.

But his thieving days ended during a two-hour undercover sting along Wilshire Boulevard. LAPD Officer Refugio Garza watched as ``Too Tall'' ambled up the aisle of a crowded MTA bus, stealthily snatched a woman's wallet and then got off the bus.

``It was one of fastest and smoothest picks that I'd ever seen,'' Garza said, adding that Lloyd Brown, 50, aka ``Too Tall,'' was recently sentenced to three years in state prison. ``Obviously he was hurting for cash. He was persistent ... This was his only form of income.''

It was all in a day's work for Garza, part of the Pickpocket Detail within a little-known, 120-member LAPD Transit Bus Division. The division, funded under a $30 million contract with the MTA, is tasked with providing safety for 1.4 million people who ride the bus every day between work, school and home.

Headquartered downtown in an MTA bus yard, the LAPD officers are on the lookout for fare jumpers, pickpockets, perverts and vandals who commit crimes on thousands of buses that run along hundreds of lines through the city.

With ridership increasing, and a push for expanded bus service, police are trying to boost their ranks and resources.

``I'd love to get more officers. We can't be everywhere at once,'' said LAPD Capt. Kenneth Garner, who was transferred from the Foothill Division in Pacoima to head the Transit Bus Division. ``It is a balancing act to make sure the lines are as safe as possible.''

Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, a former LAPD officer, said he didn't think the department has sufficient personnel to adequately patrol the vast MTA territory within the city.

``As we find this rapid transit system going on line, the move is to have additional ridership, but the number of cops isn't going up,'' he said. ``I compare this to the shortfall of cops on the street.''

Despite the low numbers of police, Transit Bus Division reports a 10.5 percent decrease in bus crimes over the last year. Officials attribute the decline to an increase in the numbers of buses police have been boarding since Sept. 11, and a higher visibility by uniformed patrols. Officers boarded 100,240 buses in 2001, up from 55,709 in 1998.

Paul Lennon, managing director of safety and security for the MTA, said Garner faces an uphill battle in continuing to keep crime down.

``He'll have to maintain momentum in the post 9-11 environment,'' Lennon said. ``He'll have to keep officers focused on boarding buses and playing an interfacing role with operators.''

It is the division's undercover details that hit hot spots, blending into crowded masses, looking for suspicious activity - unruly passengers, taggers, gropers and pickpockets. Sgt. Bruce Vermaat, who heads the pickpocket detail, said nabbing a pickpocket is like finding a needle in a haystack.

``They look like your average Joe,'' he said. ```Too Tall' acted like a good Samaritan, smiling at passengers and allowing them to board the bus before he got on.''

They also report a growing number of organized pickpockets, connected to a South American crime syndicate, who work in teams of up to five.

``We've had husband-wife teams, mom-dad, father-son,'' Vermaat said. ``It's a family affair.''

While most of the crime on buses occurs near downtown, the San Fernando Valley has its share - most of which are sex crimes. Detectives say that, in part because of the heat, sex predators cruise the Valley buses looking for young females wearing loose-fitting clothes.

Undercover Officer Tom Brown was aboard a bus on Van Nuys Boulevard one warm sunny day last month when he caught a sexual predator who rubbed up against two women, then got off the bus and walked into a Burger King. He was arrested.

Riders are not the only victims. Transit Bus Division police take dozens of reports every year from angry bus drivers, many of whom have been hit, threatened and spat upon. Eighteen assaults against bus drivers were recorded on the 10 worst bus lines across the city in 2001, compared with 39 in 2000.

``It's a constant battle keeping crime down,'' said Goldy Norton, a spokesman for the 5,000-member United Transportation Union, made up of drivers. ``Every driver will tell you a war story.''

Bus driver Kimberly Brown-Washington still has nightmares from a stalking incident that occurred on her bus over a year ago.

She had been driving line 156 between Panorama City and downtown Los Angeles in November 2000 when a passenger got on her bus. The man became friendly to her, waiting hours at the bus stop just to see her. At least once he wrote her a love letter.

``He was a problem I couldn't handle,'' said Washington-Brown, an 18-year bus driving veteran. ``The nastier I got, the more he enjoyed it.''

She called the police, who eventually arrested the man.

But she still is haunted.

``I don't feel like I'm safe,'' she said. ``If he gets out of jail, I feel he'll come back.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, chart

Photo:

LAPD officers from the Transit Bus Division Kent Lau, right, and Dwight Nolan talk with MTA bus operator Harry Fradejas about potential problems with the riders.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

Chart:

MTA BUS CRIME

SOURCE: LAPD