MACARTHUR PARK: BACK FROM THE DARK SIDE RESIDENTS, COPS WORKED TOGETHER TO QUELL VIOLENCE.

Byline: BETH BARRETT Staff Writer

A bang shattered the tranquillity of families picnicking and kids playing in MacArthur Park on a recent Sunday evening.

A bus had just run over a soccer ball.

But the ``pop'' provided a momentary flashback to a not-too-distant past when visitors to the Rampart Division park feared gunfire, when drug dealers, prostitutes, gang members and the homeless controlled the turf -- and residents, city workers and sometimes even the cops didn't venture inside its borders.

But in the past seven years since the Rampart station was stigmatized by a police-corruption scandal, the park has made a comeback.

And Connie Rice, chairwoman of the Blue Ribbon Rampart Review Panel, said its rebirth can become a model for collaborative approaches by police in other communities.

``The tipping point was when the police realized the whole community was not only with them, they were out here helping them,'' she said. ``(The community) wanted to participate in the cleanup. They could see what LAPD was doing and they appreciated tGlendale resident Lilly Hernandez was ready to pack up her Lennox Hair Care shop on Alvarado Street across from the park to get away from the menaces. ``I was scared, but now we're going to stay,'' Hernandez said.

Don Lee, who has an acupuncture clinic in the same building, said he feels safe -- even at night. ``Sometimes I hear homeless people yelling, but there are no problems at all,'' he said.

Cmdr. Charlie Beck, who as a captain oversaw the transformation that began in 2003, said he was given autonomy to try different crime-fighting strategies.

The goal, he said, was to change behavior in a park that had deteriorated into an ``open-air drug market.'' Officers -- who were given park assignments such as bicycle patrols -- discussed goals for the park, including targeting smaller crimes that often lead to more serious ones.

They cracked down on everything from drug sales and illegal gambling to the use of shopping carts by the homeless.

Grants, corporate donations and other funds paid for lighting and resources such as surveillance cameras microwave-linked to the station. Residents were brought in on plans to restore the park.

And, slowly, local and federal agencies that had given up came back: The city's Department of Water and Power began to repair lights, the U.S. Forestry Service trimmed trees so the cameras could get a clear view and recreational programs resumed.

Beck said he treated his officers the way he wanted them to treat community members.

``If you're fair in decision-making, seek input while you're making decisions, explain what you're doing ... and you have the ability to talk to them on a person-to-person level rather than boss to subordinate, they see it as a model for dealing in the community,'' he said.

Rampart officers said they are proud of their success.

``We had innovative captains ... and as a pilot division, there was more attention paid to what patrol needs,'' said Officer Hannu Tarjamo, a nine- year LAPD veteran.

Still, Councilman Bernard Parks, the LAPD's chief during the Rampart scandal, cautioned against claiming that the park problem has finally been solved.

``MacArthur Park has been cleaned up no less than half a dozen times throughout the past decades,'' Parks said. ``People have a short memory.''

For now, however, some say it has become a refuge from criminal activity in nearby neighborhoods.

Herber Fuentes, 46, said he rolls his wheelchair around its lagoon almost every afternoon to watch the birds.

``I feel safe,'' said Fuentes, who was paralyzed after being shot on a nearby street nearly two decades ago. ``It's relaxing.''

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) A summer evening draws scores of residents to MacArthur Park, which was cleaned up in the transformation of the scandal-plague of Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer