LAPD BRASS SING COMPSTAT PRAISE NEW PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS CRIME TRENDS GEOGRAPHICALLY.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

Every week, LAPD Chief William Bratton shows up at one of his police stations, demanding answers to the city's crime problems.

Every week, division captains step up to the microphone and tell the chief why rapes are up, why robberies are up, and what's the deal with auto thefts. Every week, Bratton's commanders are dressed down, expected to have the answers or incur his wrath.

Welcome to Bratton's Compstat crime tracking meetings, his way of making division bosses more accountable for crimes on their turf.

Six months into Compstat, Bratton asks the questions. Commanders are expected to answer.

``It's designed to keep people on their toes,'' said Deputy Chief Ronald Bergmann, the Valley Bureau's commander. ``(Commanders) are taking every effort to go to Compstat and be prepared.''

Compstat was introduced to the LAPD last October, during Bratton's first weeks as chief. It replaced the LAPD's former model, called FASTRAC, which was modeled after Compstat, and which the chief called called a poor imitation. Bratton used Compstat to help bring crime down when he was commissioner of the New York Police Department in the mid-1990s.

It was brought to Los Angeles to better identify neighborhoods with serious crime problems, and as a way to better provide resources to serve those areas.

``It's been very successful,'' said LAPD Detective Jeffrey Godown, the assistant commanding officer of the Compstat team. ``It allows commanding officers to focus on issues and problems within their division. It allows the chief to be fully briefed and prepared on the problems and issues.''

It is too early to gauge what effects Compstat is having in Los Angeles, but top brass in the department applaud it.

``I enjoy it,'' said Cmdr. Michel Moore, the Valley Bureau's second in command. ``I enjoy the fact that the boss gets stumped. He's looking at the data and wants to understand it. He wants to know the nuts and bolts. I love that.''

At the Compstat meetings, held once a week in one of the LAPD's four geographic bureaus, the latest emerging crime trends and hot spots are discussed and analyzed, charted, mapped and logged into a computer.

It highlights some of the most dangerous street corners, and plots emerging problems that may not have previously been on police radar screens.

At a recent Valley Bureau Compstat meeting, police talked about Van Nuys Boulevard, between the Golden State and Foothill freeways in Pacoima, as being one of the Foothill Division's worst problem areas. It's an area where police frequently record drug sales, gang shootings and other violence.

``The bulk of their violent crime occurs there,'' Moore said. ``It's Foothill's greatest challenge.''

Foothill bosses told Bratton narcotics officers are conducting undercover drug sale stings there, and the Zero Tolerance Task Force saturates the area regularly.

Agents from from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who have attended Valley Bureau Compstat meetings because of firearms violence, have also been assisting.

``During this period of limited resources and limited budgets, we need to more effectively do what we do,'' said Donald Kincaid, the special agent in charge of the ATF's Los Angeles Field Division. ``We're working very well with the LAPD.''

Compstat has also helped illuminate another troubling crime trend in the West Valley Division's Canoga Park area: robberies and aggravated assaults.

Street thugs are holding up day laborers who carry wads of cash in their pockets.

West Valley's answer: They'll ask businesses to help keep day laborers off sidewalks and shelter them in parking lots near the stores.

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SOURCE: Los Angeles Police Department