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Building Bridges - Volume III, Number 3, 2004
Lancaster Community Appreciation Project
The past decade has seen phenomenal growth in Lancaster City, and while our affordable housing used to provide safe homes for willing workers to help build our future, it seems that affordable housing has become a nightmare… David A. Berger, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney and community prosecutor.
Lancaster City, California, population 125,000, is located about 70 miles from downtown Los Angeles, at the northern end of Los Angeles County. With an increase in population of more than 27,000 since 1990,1 Lancaster is one of the fastest growing communities in California. This growth has brought with it an unwanted side effect, an increase in crime.2 In an effort to ensure a safe environment for its residents, the city created an initiative known as Lancaster Community Appreciation Project (LAN-CAP). LAN-CAP’s mission is “to develop and implement effective proactive anti-crime measures in order to combat crime associated with drugs, parolees-at-large, and gangs [thereby] improving the quality of life for residents.”3 The idea of creating a community prosecution program to address the burgeoning crime issues in Lancaster was based upon the success of Los Angeles County community prosecution programs in six locations.4
Setting the Foundation
The concept of LAN-CAP took root in March 2002, when the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) provided funding for a deputy district attorney to work with the City of Lancaster, the Sheriff’s Department and the community. A six-month evaluation period followed, allowing for the formation of partnerships vital to the success of the program.
Over the next year, Deputy District Attorney David A. Berger, Lancaster’s Community Prosecutor, convinced the Lancaster City Council to pass a series of measures he crafted.5 These ordinances were aimed at implementing proactive solutions to problems associated with street gangs and their associated crimes involving narcotics, parolees-at-large, and prostitution. Together, these ordinances provide the framework for LAN-CAP. LAN-CAP is funded through a combination of revenue sources including the Rental Business License Fee paid by the owners of the 14,000 plus apartments in the city, sales tax revenues and matching funds from the City’s general fund.
Although the creation of LAN-CAP was clearly the result of a proactive partnership of officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Probation Department, State Parole Board, Housing Authority, City Code Enforcement, and District Attorney’s Office, it was Berger who spearheaded the effort and is the chief architect behind its creation and design. The inspiration for creating many aspects of LAN-CAP’s design came from Berger’s regular consultation with a community program planner and monthly meetings with his community prosecution colleagues in Los Angeles County.
The Geography of Crime
Early on, Berger attended neighborhood watch and public safety meetings, coordinated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Community Oriented Policing program (COPS) where he informed citizens of his mission and invited them to share their concerns and suggestions. Overwhelmingly, crime-ridden, poorly managed rental properties were the chief complaint.
Research bore out the community’s complaints. More crime occurs in areas with a higher concentration of rental housing. In fact, 64% of serious crime was attributable to city areas with higher proportions of rental housing. These areas became LAN-CAP’s catchment areas and primary target.
LAN-CAP Deputy Sheriffs
During the creation and implementation of this community prosecution program, a symbiotic relationship developed between the Sheriff’s Department and LAN-CAP. Yet, the Sheriff’s Department lacked the resources necessary to provide the community connection and enforcement necessary to implement LAN-CAP programs.
Revenues from the Rental Housing Business License fees (see below) provide funding for eight LAN-CAP deputy sheriffs who have exclusive responsibility to enforce LAN-CAP programs in and around rental communities in the City. Two LAN-CAP deputies are permanently assigned to each of the City’s four sectors. This provides continuity and familiarity for both the LAN-CAP deputies and the residents of the rental communities. Although LAN-CAP deputies serve all rental properties in an entire zone, they pay particular attention to properties that have joined the LAN-CAP program and properties that are the source of ongoing problems.
LAN-CAP Strategies
Like most community prosecution programs, LAN-CAP is a work in progress. It evolves along with the needs of the community and growth is determined by available resources. Therefore, its specifics are continually being redefined. Some of LAN-CAP’s current strategies include the Crime Free Rental Housing Program, a Rental Housing Business License ordinance, the Nuisance Abatement By Seizure (NABS) program, Crime Free Zone designations, and selective vertical prosecution.
Crime Free Rental Housing Program
The Crime Free Rental Housing Program provides for a three-phase process of training, security, and community involvement aimed at reducing crime in and around rental communities. The community prosecutor is responsible for scheduling each event, conducting the presentations and inviting guest speakers.
Phase I provides free eight-hour training sessions for landlords and property managers. Training topics include: Warning Signs of Crime in Your Rental Community, Eviction Process, and Selecting and Screening Tenants.
Phase II of the Crime Free Rental Housing Program involves Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). In this phase, LAN-CAP deputies inspect rental communities and make suggestions on how to effectively implement CPTED concepts that will make rental properties safer. The goal of Phase II is to make rental communities less enticing and less accessible to criminals who often use the anonymity of the rental properties’ common areas to commit crimes. Although property owners are responsible for the costs of improvements, it is hoped that property values will increase as a result of improved conditions and safety.
The goal of the final phase of the Crime Free Rental Housing Program is to increase tenant involvement in the community. Tenants are trained in crime prevention and reporting by the LAN-CAP deputies who will serve them. By increasing familiarity between the deputies and tenants, it is hoped that tenants will assist the LAN-CAP deputies in reducing crime.
Upon completion of all three phases, landlords will be eligible to publicly display LAN-CAP’s Crime Free Rental Housing Program signs as an indication that their rental community is safer for tenants and more dangerous for criminals.
Rental Business License
LAN-CAP’s Rental Business License ordinance, which became effective in March, makes operating a rental business without a license a misdemeanor. Although there is currently no requirement that landlords participate in LAN-CAP programs, the City’s ability to deny, suspend or revoke the Rental Business License of landlords who fail to act responsibly in managing and maintaining their properties serves as a valuable incentive for landlords to support this and other LAN-CAP initiatives. In addition, the owners of poorly managed rental properties will be sent warning letters requesting them to meet with a deputy district attorney to discuss the offending conditions, possible remedies and consequences for failing to act. Failure to effectively address the offending conditions could result in a recommendation by the deputy district attorney to suspend the rental business license.
Crime Free Zones
The purpose of Lancaster’s Crime Free Zones is to keep those individuals most likely to commit crime - parolees and probationers - out of Lancaster’s most crime-prone areas. A large portion of crime in Lancaster City is drug-related. Lancaster Municipal Code Section 9.32 was enacted to recognize certain well-documented drug-prone areas as Crime Free Zones. These zones are designated by street signs announcing that individuals are entering a Crime-Free Zone. Constitutional challenges are avoided because Crime Free Zone exclusions only apply to parolees and probationers who are under court order to stay away from these drug-plagued areas as a condition of parole or probation. Prosecutors, parole and probation officers may request a judge to issue the stay away orders or the judge may initiate the order without a request. Because Crime Free Zones are well-documented, drug-plagued areas, judges have the evidence they need to impose the stay away orders.
Nuisance Abatement By Seizure (NABS) program
Under LAN-CAP’s Nuisance Abatement By Seizure (NABS) program, vehicles used in connection with certain quality-of-life crimes may be seized and subject to forfeiture. The NABS program began with the enactment of Lancaster Municipal Code Section 9.30, which defines any vehicle used in connection with prostitution, illegal weapons possession, possession of illegal drugs and illegal trash dumping as a nuisance.
In passing this ordinance, the Lancaster City Council recognized that existing laws did not adequately deter these offenses. In the case of possession of illegal weapons in vehicles, it was difficult to prove who had dominion and control over the weapon. In the case of prostitution-related charges, the punishment rarely exceeded a fine or probation. In either case, an arrest had little, if any, deterrent effect.
The first test of the effectiveness of NABS came on March 19, 2004, when LAN-CAP deputies conducted a “John Sting” operation, seizing 30 vehicles from men who sought to solicit the services of a prostitute. According to Berger, these men were embarrassed by having to explain why they were coming home without the family car. It is thought that the media attention surrounding this sting operation will add to the deterrent effect.
LAN-CAP’s Impact and Legacy
By focusing time and resources on known high-crime locations, LAN-CAP is an initiative that enables Lancaster to deal with crime more efficiently. While it is too early to judge the impact of LAN-CAP, Berger states that “there is little doubt that it will have a positive effect in terms of making the community more aware of the availability of law enforcement resources targeted specifically at problem areas in the city.”
For more information on LAN-CAP, please contact David Berger, Deputy District Attorney, at daberger@lasd.org or dberger@da.co.la.ca.us, or visit the following Web sites: www.lancap.net and http://da.co.la.ca.us/qol.htm.
1For population statistics, see, United States Census, 1990 & 2000. http://homer.ssd.census.gov/cdrom/lookup/1081190108 & http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html (accessed April 5, 2004).
2 “What are classified as part 1 crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, grand-theft auto and arson) have soared in Lancaster. They’ve gone from a little over 200 per 10,000 people in 1999 to a projected total of about 400 per 10,000 people in 2003.” Antelope Valley Press, Can Lancaster Program turn clock back to 1983?, November 11, 2003. http://www.lancap.net/Press/03.11.11_AVPress_Editorial.pdf (accessed April 5, 2004).
3 Lancaster Community Appreciation Project: LAN-CAP, What is LAN-CAP? http://www.lancap.net/002_What_is_LAN-CAP.htm (accessed February 10, 2004).
4 http://da.co.la.ca.us/qol.htm (accessed May 14, 2004).
5 See Lancaster Municipal Code, Sections 8.22 (Rental Housing Business License), 9.30 (Abatement of Nuisances Vehicles), and 9.32 (Crime Free Zones).
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