POLICE LISTEN TO RESIDENTS' CONCERNS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

The sprawling Park Sierra apartment complex is a mini-city of some 400 residents. It has its own streets, recreation areas and its own set of problems, most of them minor, but annoyances nonetheless.

Now residents have an ally in combating those problems - the federally funded Community Oriented Policing program administered by a special team of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies.

Under the COPS program, the residents of the Canyon Country complex were surveyed in July by sheriff's deputies regarding what they perceive as the most pressing problems in their immediate neighborhood. The results were released at a follow-up meeting Thursday night.

Minor thefts top the list of concerns about crime at Park Sierra, according to the survey. Residents are least worried about drugs and violent crime in their neighborhood.

``What we learned at the meeting was the people there feel safe, confident, there are not a lot of big problems,'' said sheriff's Capt. Mike Quinn, commander of the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station.

``Their concerns are that people have abandoned cars or they're working on cars in parking stalls for visitors or the handicapped. On Saturday nights, they don't like it that some people sit out on the curb drinking.''

While the complaints sound minor, they're just the types of thing that diminish quality of life, COPS advocates say.

Other complaints involved traffic - cars illegally parked or speeding through the complex or on outside streets.

Sierra Park was chosen for the High Impact Community Policing program because money from last year's federal crime bill earmarked for Los Angeles County must be used in unincorporated county areas, and those are few and far between in the Santa Clarita area, Quinn said.