Council Recap:Security guard patrols extended to daylight hours

Council Recap:Security guard patrols extended to daylight hours

Published on September 11, 2024

In March 2022, the Lakewood City Council approved the creation of four overnight security guard patrols to add more "eyes and ears" on the streets of Lakewood to deter crime and to quickly call in suspicious behavior for Deputy Sheriff response. The guards patrol in highly visible vehicles, quietly, but with rotating patrol lights so they make their presence very visible as they drive up and down Lakewood streets.

"We've considered them to be a successful addition to our public safety team," said City Manager Thaddeus McCormack. "They've called in criminal activity they've spotted, come to the aid of people in need, and gotten people to leave parks and other locations that are closed but where people have sometimes been congregating late at night, worrying neighbors."

There's been an uptick in daytime residential burglaries and other property crime in Lakewood and many other parts of L.A. County recently, and so this June, the City Council decided to extend the private security patrols to daytime hours on a trial basis.

"We've noticed a decline in daytime burglaries during that trial period, and we would like to extend the trial period by another two months to see if the positive trend continues," said McCormack.

At their meeting on Sept. 10, the City Council approved an extension of the contract with Southwest Patrol to have two security guards do daytime patrol seven days a week through the end of October.

"The security guards are not a replacement for Deputy Sheriffs," said McCormack. "We continue to utilize the maximum number of Deputy Sheriff patrol hours that L.A. County will allow us given their personnel limits as they work to increase the number of Deputies in the county. But the security guards are a good, innovative way to expand the number of public safety eyes and ears on the streets of Lakewood…and to enhance our ability to remain one of the safest communities in our region, which has always been a top priority for Lakewood."

• Council Recap