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Many of you are aware of a recent
robbery that occurred here in Hermosa
Beach last week. For those of you who
are not aware, I will give you a brief
summary of the event: At approx 8pm in
the evening a woman was walking alone in
the 1000 block of Manhattan Ave. She
was confronted by three African-American
males who demanded her purse. One was
armed with a pistol. Upon seeing the
pistol, the woman gave up her purse and
the suspects fled to an awaiting
vehicle. The suspects then drove off
rapidly. The victim did her best to
provide a description but candidly told
us the incident occurred too quickly for
her to provide full descriptions and she
is unsure if she could recognize the
suspects again.
This is a very serious crime.
Our City leaders and the Police
Department are taking the matter very
seriously. This crime, may be related
to similar crimes in Manhattan Beach
over the past two weeks. Manhattan
Beach is currently investigating similar
robberies and our detectives have been
collaborating with their detectives as
well as other law enforcement agencies
in the South Bay to share our leads and
knowledge in an effort to find these
suspects.
The Department is currently utilizing
its resources to not only solve this
crime, but prevent further crime. I
have received many emails with
questions, concerns, comments and
suggestions on how to deal with this
problem and I appreciate hearing from
all of you. However, I would be remiss
if I did not point out a few facts about
what we (the police department) can and
can not do, what we are doing and what
all of you can do to help prevent
further incidents and possibly capture
the suspects in this incident.
It is with the utmost respect I feel the
need to remind some residents that we
live in Los Angeles County, an area with
a diverse population of over ten million
people. We live in very close proximity
to cities and neighborhoods that are not
as fortunate as we are to live in a
beach community. These communities have
very serious crime problems and they are
impacted more severely by the tough
economic times. We are very lucky to
live in a community that is much safer,
has its own committed police force and
residents that don't accept crime as a
norm. This is what keeps our community
safer than many others. That said; we
are not immune. We are not walled off
from the outside world and in fact our
tourism based economy demands that
others come and visit us. Some of those
who come have and will take advantage of
our lifestyle and also our sense of
security by committing crimes such as
this. This is why we encourage crime
prevention efforts and encourage you to
call your police department whenever you
see something suspicious. As your Chief
of Police, I want you to understand that
we are here to answer those calls. DO
NOT feel you are bothering us or that we
have more important things to do; if
it concerns you, it concerns us, so
make the call. This is part of the
"broken windows theory" of crime
prevention. If we pay attention to the
smaller crimes and suspicious
activities; we help prevent the larger
crimes and problems.
Specific to this incident; please rest
assured we are doing our best to solve
this crime and in addition we are taking
steps to prevent future crimes. Some of
what we do, we do not publicize, such as
stake-outs, sting operations or other
enforcement methods, such as saturation
patrols. As for what you can do, we
encourage the following: First,
recognize that although serious, this
crime struck like lightning and may or
may not be related to what occurred in
Manhattan, so we can not say with
certainty that this is a crime series or
pattern. One crime does not mean our
entire community is now unsafe or
jeopardized. However, the seriousness
of the offense makes it important for us
to ask you to take precautions such as
walk or jog with a friend, keep your
cell phone separate from your purse or
wallet, keep your wallet or purse secure
at all times when with you, or when
going for a walk, think for a minute if
your full purse or valuables are needed
on this errand or walk. For example,
if you are going to wash laundry at the
Laundromat, bring your quarters, your
cell phone and your clothes, you don't
need a fully loaded wallet or purse or
wear your valuables. If you're going to
the store, only bring the cash you need,
or use a debit card and don't bring cash
with you. These are just a couple quick
examples to help you to think about what
you are going to be doing and take the
necessary precautions you feel may be
necessary. As always, we stand ready to
help answer questions or make
suggestions on specifics anytime. We
are just a phone call away.
In closing, I want to repeat, we are
very fortunate to live in a very safe
community. When crimes like this
happen, we wish we could have an officer
on every corner to prevent them. The
fact is we can not. Even if I put every
single one of our officers on the
street, in plainclothes or uniforms, we
could not cover our entire city. It is
just not practical or possible. This is
why we encourage community involvement
through programs like Neighborhood Watch
and Volunteers in Policing. These
programs help to augment our police
patrols and in fact are directly
responsible for capturing suspects and
preventing crime. In recent weeks,
these two groups have "caught", by being
our eyes and ears on the street, several
suspects responsible for thefts,
muggings and just this weekend reported
suspicious subjects that turned out to
be responsible for multiple auto
break-ins in our community. These
groups, along with the officers that
responded, investigated and arrested
these suspects are how we (the
Department and the Community) are
continuing to make Hermosa Beach one of
the safest cities in Los Angeles County.
Respectfully,
Greg Savelli
Chief of Police |
