The 14A17 Crime Information Network & Station 43 CERT supports LAPD Basic Car 14A27 and promotes disaster preparedness in and around LAFD Fire Station 43's area. Its historical name is the Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch. As a neighborhood watch, its activities have been: 1) to hold a monthly community meeting in which all are welcome to come hear our LAPD Senior Lead Officer (SLO) discuss crime trends and prevention tips in 14A27, 2) to send, when available, LAPD crime reports directly to the email boxes of neighbors in 14A27, 3) promote disaster preparedness in and around LAFD Station 43, and 4) has opposed real estate developments which would have put public safety in 14A27 at risk. All other activities are beyond the historical scope of the watch. Those wanting more services have been invited to step-up and volunteer themselves.
The Watch is not part of LAPD or LAFD or any other government agency. It is informally affilated with LAPD Pacific Area's community based policing program. The Watch is not a police agency. The Watch is a civilian network of neighbors concerned about public safety in 14A27. LAPD is invited to speak at just about every meeting and supplies crime statistics for us to email out to our neighbors.
The primary work of the Network is educational - meetings and emailed crime reports. All are invited to come to our meetings to become educated about public safety; so long as they respect their neighbors' divergent viewpoints and are not disruptive.
While out LAPD Basic Car 14A27 has boundaries, the Network does not! The network also does not have "members." LAPD has set the boundaries of 14A27 as bound by the #10 freeway to the north, #405 freeway to the west, Venice Blvd. to the south, to Robertson Blvd. to the east. The Venice boundary between Overland and Motor jutts south to Washington Blvd. On the southside of Venice Blvd. between Motor to Robertson, the border is jagged - parts are in LA City (14A27) while others are in Culver City.
All crime within Basic Car 14A27 impacts everyone who lives, works or owns property here. Some people define their neighborhood as smaller than 14A27. For purposes of public safety this idea is based on misinformed assumptions. Even if other peoples who live in our basic car have a different income level, are of a different race, nationality, religion, (sub)culture, or speak a language you can not, we all have a common fate for we have one and only one LAPD patrol car assigned to us. Our car is called 14A27 and has the area stated above. If you live, work or have property here, this is the police car that serves you. If our one patrol car is tied up at the other end of the area from you, they are not available to help you. If our one patrol car makes an arrest, they must return to the station and process the arrest which takes four hours; four hours they are unavailable to help you. While LAPD has other cars, they will not come into our area unless there is a serious crime in progress. A car or home which has been broken into, or other crimes which already happened will wait. When we oppose harmful real estate developments, i.e. homeless center, strip club, they impact you. They tied up our police car. They make our crime statistics go up!
While there are no specific demographic data available for Westside Village, there are statistics available for Palms. According to the 2000 Census, there are 9,436 (34%) whites in Palms; 7,123 (25%) Latino, 5,172 (18%) Asian Pacific Islander, 3,788 (14%) African American, 2,507 (9%) other. Westside Village may be less diverse; predominantly white. 93% (24,938) Palms residents are renters; 1,898 (7%) are owners. Westside Village probably has an opposite pattern.
By age, the largest group, 30% (7,984) Palms residents are between the ages 21-29. Most are probably UCLA and other college students, most of whom are single. The next largest group in Palms, by age, are 6,329 (23%) are between ages 30-39. Tied for third place, at 13% are 3,593 people who are between 40-49, and 3,357 who are under 15 years old. 50-64 year old account for 5% (1,403) residents. People 18-20 are 4% (1,007) of the Palms population. Teenagers from 15-17 are 2% (598) of the population. The Westside Village population is probably older.
To add to the confusion, there are people on southside of Venice Blvd. who are in LA City yet are serviced by the U.S Post Office in Culver City and have a Culver City address. These people however are served by LAPD (14A27) and this Network. To avoid confusion in an emergency, it is highly recommended that the people in the effected areas call both LAPD, LA City Fire Department, and Culver City Police and Fire Departments, to make sure who they should call in the event of an emergency.
The Network shares it resources with all the peoples within the Palms Triangle not matter what other boundaries are within the triangle. The Watch is not affilated with but works cooperatively with other agencies in the 14A27 area, especially the Cardiff Neighborhood Watch, Palms Neighborhood Council (PNC), Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), Westside Villege Civic Assn. (WVCA), South Robertson Neighborhood Councils (SoRo), Westside Neighborhood Council (WNC), West of Westood Homeowners Assn. (WOW), Westwood Gardens Home Owner's Assn. and so on. We work closely with Culver City Police Department and Culver City CERT.
Note - Website - Apology is made for the advertising on the website. However since this is a free website which costs the people of 14A27 nothing, it is small annoyance to put up with. Of course the advertising is not endorsed by the Watch or Dr. Cheng.
(c) 2007, 2008 Cliff Cheng, Ph.D., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!
