COPS 'N' ROBBERS DEN HITS DUST.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

To a lot of retired and veteran Los Angeles Police Department officers, the West Valley was like Mayberry with a little panache back in 1960 when the area finally got its own police station - letting the rest of the city know that the San Fernando Valley was coming of age.

Fruit orchards and ranches were giving way to housing subdivisions, paved roads and more people. A lot more people.

We were growing up out here in the wild west end of the Valley, and there was an easy, ominous way to tell.

We needed our own jail.

It was a waste of time for the handful of patrol officers assigned to the West Valley to drive all the way downtown to Parker Center or even over to the Van Nuys Division to book suspects and transport prisoners, as they were doing every day.

The boys in City Hall took notice and shelled out $600,000 for a new station, ``ushering in a new era of improved law enforcement for residents in the West San Fernando Valley,'' as it was worded in the Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet - the forerunner to the Daily News - which put the station's opening at the top of Page 1.

The announcement that the station is closing 42 years later to make room for a $17.5 million station - one that will be three times larger and even have a 4,000-square-foot helipad when it opens in December 2004 - only made Page 4 late last year.

People don't seem to get quite as excited about the Valley's growing up.

But to a lot of the veteran cops who cut their teeth as rookies at the old West Valley station, the place was like a home away from home.

``A lot of us used to sleep in the jail overnight when we had to be in court early the next day and didn't want to drive all the way home for a few hours' sleep,'' said retired LAPD Sgt. Walt Kainz, who spent 20 years of his 30-year career at West Valley.

``It was a favorite station of many officers because a lot of the guys lived out here and wanted to work close to home. Also, it was an extremely busy and active station.

``We used to laugh that the guys working downtown thought the Valley was a quiet place, but we had just as much activity and more than other stations in the city,'' Kainz said.

The West Valley station also had a strong hometown feel to it, said Sgt. Ralph Morales, who served his probationary period there in 1984.

``It's your Andy Griffith kind of thing in Mayberry - officers who stayed in one place a long time and developed long-term relationships with the citizens in their area,'' Morales said.

``I still remember looking around the roll-call room here as a rookie and seeing guys with 20 and 30 years (of experience) still at the same station - still working the field, being productive and looking to help rookie officers like myself out.''

About 100 of those now-retired LAPD officers who called the West Valley police station home for all or most of their careers will be returning later this month for a special closing ceremony, when pieces of their old duty station will be auctioned off.

``We've got old jail doors, bunk beds from the jail, old signs, tiles, fixtures and a lot of memorabilia,'' said LAPD Community Relations Officer Steve Whitelaw, who has spent 18 of his 21 years in the department at West Valley.

The ceremony, scheduled for 11 a.m. Jan. 31, is mainly for the officers who worked here, but the general public also is welcome to participate in the auction, said Whitelaw. The ceremony will take place in front of the temporary trailers the police division is using behind the new library at the West Valley Municipal Building, 19040 Vanowen St., Reseda.

The auction money will go to the West Valley Booster Club, whose members live in the area and support their local police officers by purchasing equipment and training materials not provided by tax revenue.

``We've got retired officers coming who served their first day of police duty here - and their last,'' Whitelaw said.

``They didn't want to go anywhere else because they had found a home: Mayberry with a little panache,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Two police officers watch the LAPD's old West Valley station and jail demolished Wednesday to make way for a triple-size replacement. Pieces of the old building - such as jail doors and bunk beds - will be auctioned later this month.

(2) Old jail doors lay in heap at the West Valley station on Wednesday.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(3) Station opening was a big story in 1960 Van Nuy News.