By Mary O’KEEFE

At the April meeting of Neighborhood Watch/Cops ’n’ Tacos at Joselito’s in Tujunga the new commander of the Los Angeles Police Dept.’s Foothill Division, Captain Jay Hom, was introduced to neighbors. 

Each month this neighborhood group meets to discuss issues in and around Tujunga, including the ever-increasing problems with speeders and the ongoing issues surrounding the unhoused.

“Thank you for having me here,” Hom said. “I know it’s the first time I’ve been out here to meet with you guys.”

He was actually assigned to the Foothill station in July; he came from the LAPD northeast area. Hom has been with the department for 33 years. He began his career as a reserve police officer in 1992 and was appointed as a regular police officer in 1993. He has been a department supervisor since 1998 and has been assigned to numerous operational and administrative positions throughout LAPD, according to LAPD. 

He told the neighbors he had been in town for a while and worked in partnership with the community lead officers and patrol officers. He added his goal is to make public safety a priority. 

He said he has worked in the traffic department of LAPD for “quite a few years” and said he will try to bring more traffic resources to the Foothill area. 

“We do a lot of speed enforcement here at Foothill Boulevard,” he said. 

Hom added the speed corridors are Wentworth Street, La Tuna Canyon and Sunland Boulevard. 

“And they seem to use this corridor to keep going into Glendale and La Crescenta,” he added.

He spoke of the string of burglaries in the San Fernando Valley area and how that rash of residential burglaries has not rolled over to the Foothill area. 

“We’ve been pretty good here in Foothill the last couple of years,” he said. “I think we’ve been doing a good job here. Our gang unit is very effective. We recover a lot of weapons and you know a lot of burglars carry weapons, so we’ve been doing a really good job of making those arrests ahead of time so that we’re not seeing some of the crime you’re seeing [in other areas].”

One of the main concerns of neighbors in Sunland-Tujunga is the unhoused. 

“Homelessness is pretty much the number one complaint of everyone in the city, if not the region,” Hom said. 

He added that some burglaries, including vehicle burglaries, are related to homelessness. 

Senior lead officer Gloria Caloca told the neighbors that she follows up on all reports of homeless issues in the area and will contact property owners where homeless people appear to camp.

One neighbor shared her concerns of a resident who appears to allow homeless individuals to live on his/her property. The neighbor voiced concerns regarding safety. 

Caloca said she knew exactly who the neighbor was speaking about and had contacted the homeowner several times. She also told the neighbor that other neighbors in the area shared her concern. 

Hom also spoke of the response of the LAPD on the April 20 small plane crash in the parking lot of an O’Reilly Auto Parts in Pacoima. This is not something that happens often in the area, he said, adding that the area was secured quickly and the incident did not take a lot of officers off of their patrol. 

Although the department is dealing with low staffing and the Foothill Division “is a little short,” Hom said the department was able to put out eight cars on the day watch even with the response to the plane crash by officers. 

When it was time for the neighbors to ask questions, much focus was put on homelessness. One neighbor said he had called about an issue in the Oro Vista Avenue area and the wash on weekends and in the evenings when apparent partying was occurring. 

Officers at the meeting stated that calls should be made to the Dept. of Transportation; however, the neighbor said he did call the department and it refused to go there. 

“They told us that it was too dangerous for them to go down there,” the neighbor said. 

One of the officers said that LAPD will show up if there are reports of violence but often callers exaggerate the issue by reportedly “seeing” a gun or reporting that there was an increase in fighting. 

There were no parking signs placed in the area but some of them have been vandalized. 

The officers said they will respond to the parking issue and will contact the Valley Traffic Unit to ask them to deploy off-road motorcycles. 

Hom reminded people to call if they have issues. Caloca stated that she does respond to complaints and concerns.