Message from LAPD's WLA Commanding Officer to Community
March 18, 2020
TO: West Los Angeles Community
SUBJECT: COVID-19 (CORONA VIRUS)
My name is Jonathan Tom and I am the Commanding Officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) West Los Angeles (WLA) Area. A little background on me: I grew up in Los Angeles, went to University High School and did my probation at West Los Angeles over 20 years ago. As the captain at WLA, I feel compelled to write to you to address some of the concerns that we all have regarding COVID-19, AKA the Corona Virus.
It is not my intent to repeat what we are all being bombarded 24 hours a day regarding COVID-19, but rather emphasize some of the things that will keep all of us safe and to reassure you that your City and your police department are doing everything we can to keep you safe in the communities where you live, work and engage in activities.
The LAPD and WLA has implemented several procedures to maximize our ability to answer calls for service, investigate crimes, provide service and maximize our ability to provide a continuity of operations. All of these changes are temporary and meant to ensure we are successful in our mission to safeguard your lives and property. To that end, we ask for your patience because some of these changes may impact the public.
50% of WLA Detectives and all of our Senior Lead Officers (SLO) and Community Relations Officers (CRO) have been reassigned to uniformed patrol functions. The addition of these personnel to these functions will allow high visibility extra patrol at our critical sites on a daily basis. Their mission is to be highly visible at our retail stores, grocery stores and markets, shopping malls, senior sites and food distribution centers. The deployment of these personnel is meant to ensure the safety of our residents and business operators that may be dealing with large crowds and is not in response to any specific heightened criminal activity.
We have also made the difficult, but necessary decision to close our front desk operations. Until further, we are asking the public to utilize the Community Online Reporting System (CORS) at http://LAPDONLINE.org/home/content_basic_view/60409 for the following crimes:
Harassing Phone Calls
Lost Property
Vandalism
Theft and Theft from a Vehicle
Hit and Run Traffic Collisions
Note: For all other crimes, please email us at Westla@lapd.online or call the front desk at
(310) 444-0702 and an officer will assist you.
As always, if you have an . If you have a non-emergency, but are looking for the police to respond to a call for service, please call (877) ASK LAPD, which is (877) 275-5273.
Despite these scary and uncertain times, I would like to remind everyone that panic is the enemy of reason. Please remain calm, civil and reasonable as you go about your daily lives. This situation has impacted all of us to one degree or another. We can and will bounce back from COVID-19 and its impacts to our economic, physical and mental health, but we will need to work together to “flatten the curve” of the spread of the virus. Fortunately, we have seen our residents and business operators rise to the occasion by increasing social distancing, utilizing good hygiene and sheltering with loved ones.
In the meantime, I would like to encourage you to order takeout or delivery from our community’s restaurants to help them make ends meet. If you have neighbors that need assistance, please help them or refer them to the appropriate services and please follow the guidelines set forth by the Center for Disease Control and the California Department of Public Health to help prevent exposure.
If you are sick, stay at home
Wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and/or utilize a hand sanitizing solution with at least 60% alcohol content when soap and water is not available
Avoid touching your face
Maintain good health, get enough rest, maintain a moderate exercise program, eat healthy foods, and avoid tobacco use, etc.
Keep current on vaccinations
When interacting with a member of the public exhibiting upper respiratory symptoms (sneezing, coughing), stand six feet away.
The above list is not exhaustive. It is intended to provide a framework to which you can add preventive measures specific to your environment.
On behalf of the men and women of West Los Angeles Community Police Station, we sincerely appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we continue to safeguard our community. We all have to do our part and you can help combat COVID-19 by remaining calm, being reasonable, taking care of each other and not panicking. While it is reasonable to have a supply of food and essentials in your home, there is no need to over-purchase items as our supply chain has not been overly impacted. Hoarding and panic buying has caused short-term shortages of certain food and supplies in some of our stores despite them being re-stocked on a daily basis. In essence, there is no shortage of essential items so there is no reason to hoard or panic buy.
I also want to reassure you that crime in both the City and WLA continues to go down. In fact, WLA had the highest percentage drop in crime of any LAPD division in 2019 as compared to 2018. Additionally, this year to date, WLA has experienced a -9.5% decrease as compared to the same time period last year. Please continue to have situational awareness of your surroundings, do not leave your property unattended, do not leave your keys or key fob inside your vehicle when parked and lock or hide your items so you can keep them.
We will continue to work to keep you safe and do the best with the resources available to us. Know that I and our officers are invested in our mission to safeguard the lives and property of the people that we serve.
Sincerely,
JONATHAN TOM, Captain
Commanding Officer
West Los Angeles Area
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See below for links to various websites with additional COVID-19 information: