Residents Use Billboard to Thank Crime Task Force

A billboard sponsored by residents and the police thanking the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for their work in a crime task force was unveiled this week near the LAPD’s Rampart Division.

Dubbed Operation CARE (Combined Agencies Resources Enforcement) the task force united federal, state and local agencies to combat violent gang and narcotics activity for 90 days in the Rampart area bounded by 3rd Street, 7th Street, Union Avenue and Alvarado Street.

Although the number of homicides did not drop in that targeted area, murders in the Rampart Division are down considerably. Last year there were 124 murders in the division, but as of July 12 there have been 53. Authorities say that the 412 arrests that the task force made was a major factor in the decline.

In addition, sexual assaults were down 53% in the target area, car burglaries down 28% and aggravated assault down 9%.

Det. Trinka Porrata said that the presence of the three agencies helped quell a major war between the two gangs in the Rampart area, Westside 18th Street and Mara Salvatrucha. However, that turf war, centered on 3rd Street and Kenmore Avenue, has heated up since the task force left.

That was the message of the billboard, which not only thanks the task force for their work, but urged it to return. Porrata said that the DEA and ATF expressed interest in resuming the task force.