Hollenbeck Division Opens Mobile Police Center

You live on the Eastside and can’t make it to the police station? No problem, the police station can come to you.

On Thursday in Lincoln Heights, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Division unveiled a mobile community center, a 35-foot-long recreational vehicle converted into a rolling police station.

“The idea of the mobile community center is to take the police station to the community,” said Hollenbeck Cmdr. Bruce Haggerty at the new substation. “Hollenbeck station is five, six, seven miles from where some of its citizens live and this will make it easier for them to deal with the police. They can come in and talk about a problem or just talk about anything.”

The vehicle, which will be staffed by one or two police officers and a volunteer community liaison, was purchased with money from a federal grant for community-based policing, officials said. Plans call for the vehicle to be parked in various neighborhoods two times a week.

Officer Bob Garcia, who led the project, said the vehicle is comfortably furnished with light blue sofas, chairs, a television and a small conference room.

“We didn’t want a dark blue SWAT-type of vehicle,” said Garcia, as he showed the white RV to residents and city officials. “A lot of people want to go talk to the police, but going to the station can make them uneasy. This is a place where they can feel comfortable.”