Police Coverage Area
The Wilshire Community Police Station covers this area of Los Angeles. Click on the map for a closer look.
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I’ve never been more intimidated than I when I first stepped into the Wilshire Police Station. I guess I’ve never really been a fan of police. Because police mean trouble, and I don’t like having anything to do with any sort of trouble. I’m also very small, and police are very large, so I’m sure that does not help either.
I was escorted to the Community Relations office to interview Officer Jonathan Miller. Sitting in his chair he looked fairly harmless, but when he stood up to shake my hand, I realized he was probably about as harmless as an angry black bear on the prowl.
Miller and I sat down in the community relations conference room, and as we were chatting before I started the interview, I realized that while he’s twice my size and triple my weight, he was as polite as a girl scout selling cookies down the street.
“I’m sorry I’m not in uniform,” he said with truly apologetic eyes when I asked if it was okay if I took pictures. “I really wish I had a spare one I could go put on for your project.”
How nice that we wants to be so helpful, I thought in my head, and then I giggled to myself. Of course he wants to help me, he’s a police officer, his job is to people!
Officer Miller has given a decade of service to the LAPD.
“I’ve been a police officer for 10 years,” he said proudly. “But I’ve only been assigned to the Wilshire Station for about six or seven.”
Before transferring to the Wilshire Community Police Station, Miller worked for a special unit called CREW, which stands for the Crime Reduction and Enforcement of Warrant. As an officer at Wilshire, Miller has seen a variety of different tasks, including working for the gang enforcement detail, narcotics detail, as well as the violent crime task force.
Miller described how some of his jobs required him to go undercover, which was “fun to do” because it’s a change from the standard (and obvious) police uniform.
“When I was watching for narcotic activity, I would wear plain clothes for the most part, pretty much how I’m dressed now,” he said as he pointed to his gray Everlast t-shirt layered over a white long sleeve tee and blue jeans.
“People don’t realize that we’re cops….they don’t pay attention to us because we’re not in uniform so more things would happen out in public, and then we’d make an arrest based off the information that we saw.”
Miller discussed the wide variety of crime that goes on around the area, saying that crimes range from misdemeanors to felonies at any given time.
“This is the most diverse division you can work,” Miller said. “Here, you see everything.”
Looking at the crime statistics, it is clear that Miller is not lying. According to the Wilshire Crime Statistics COMPSTAT, from mid-September to mid-December of 2013, there were 160 reported violent crimes, which includes homicide, rape robbery and aggravated assaults. There were more than 1,000 property crimes that were reported, including burglaries, motor vehicle thefts, and personal thefts. The Wilshire Community Police Station made 790 arrests in that time span.
I asked Officer Miller that as a police officer, what was his best advice to keeping safe in the community. Miller answered almost immediately.
“[My advice is] just to bring awareness to the ways that you can prevent crime…because sometimes, the things that can help the impact of crime is not making it easy for criminals. We try to make sure that, especially during the holidays; people are aware and alert in order to mitigate the number of crimes that could easily be prevented.
My last question for Officer Miller was how he thought the police were perceived in the community, and how he and the rest of community relations department try to do just that— improve community relations. I realized that I must be watching way too many unrealistic cop shows, because his answer completely took me by surprise.
“There’s no way to do our job without the community. Without getting the community involved we’d be nowhere. We try our best to work with the community so that we can serve them, and that we can protect them as well.”
Officer Miller spends every day working so that you, me and everyone in the community can feel safe. I’ve never really been a fan of police, but now after spending one-on-one time with an officer of the law, I think it’s safe to say that I’m a fan.
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