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Detective briefs commission on Ring 'Neighbors' app; police staff outline crime trends, jail contract issues and form tow-RFP ad hoc committee
Summary
Detective Richard Lee described the Ring Neighbors app and how the department uses digital neighborhood alerts; police staff reported small crime increases, recruiting activity and work to replace a jail contract while the commission authorized a two-member ad hoc committee to review tow-company RFPs.
Detective Richard Lee, the department’s crime prevention officer and analyst, gave the Public Safety Commission a demonstration of the Ring Neighbors app and described how the department uses neighborhood notification tools.
Lee said Ring’s Neighbors app allows users to post videos and alerts without owning a Ring product and that Ring moderates Neighbors posts for relevance to safety and missing-persons reports. He explained posts are anonymized to other users (users appear as “Neighbor 1, 2…”), locations are shown as general circles rather than precise addresses, and Ring removed a previous law-enforcement “request for assistance” feature earlier in the year because of privacy concerns. Lee emphasized that criminal incidents should be reported directly to the police department and not only to public social media platforms because posts on sites such as Nextdoor and Instagram are not monitored by dispatch and may delay response.
Police staff later summarized department statistics and administrative items. Staff said city crime statistics show a slight uptick year-to-date; the department reported about 20,000 calls for service so far in the year (noting annual calls for service commonly run higher), and staff said the department has been actively recruiting and recently hired three new officers. The department also reported eight sworn vacancies, two dispatch vacancies and five cadet vacancies (front-office positions) at the time of the presentation.
Jail contract and courts: Staff said the city’s contract with Alhambra to handle jail bookings was not renewed by Alhambra, prompting the department to seek a new memorandum of understanding with the city of Pasadena. Staff explained that if Pascal arrangements are not finalized there could be a temporary need to use county facilities in Downtown Los Angeles; staff also noted reopening a local jail would require multiple full-time staff and would carry significant costs and liability.
Tow RFP ad hoc committee: The commission discussed a request from department staff to form an ad hoc committee to review bids for the city’s tow-contract RFPs (two contracts to be awarded to tow companies). Commissioners volunteered two members to serve on that committee; commissioners authorized staff to coordinate site visits and review bid materials. The commission recorded a roll-call vote approving the ad hoc committee; staff said the committee’s work is limited in time and scope and will be followed by a staff recommendation to the city council.
Other initiatives: Staff described plans to restart or launch volunteer programs, including a Citizens on Patrol (unarmed, civilian volunteers after academy training) and a Police Explorer program for teenagers; staff said both programs depend on staffing capacity and aimed for launch after the start of the next year. The police liaison also reported a side letter with the officers’ association that adds pay differentials for educational attainment and intermediate/advanced POST certification, effective July 1, to aid retention.
