Group meets to organize fight against crime

Costa Mesa resident Joyce Wylie was feeling the ill effects of increased crime rates in her city.

So she decided to do something about it.

Wylie invited her neighbors to assemble Wednesday evening, down the street from her Upper Birds home, at the Great Mex Grill restaurant off Mesa Verde Drive East. About 40 people took up her offer to meet Costa Mesa Police Department Lt. Vic Bakkila, ask him questions and discuss neighborhood concerns, from petty crime and transients to citizen’s arrests and coyotes.

Wylie particularly urged her neighbors in the Upper and Lower Birds tracts to form their own neighborhood watch groups and invest in a home security system. A salesman from Anaheim-based Epic Alarm was on hand.

“The police need our help,” Wylie said. “They can’t be everywhere.”

Bakkila, a veteran Costa Mesa cop, spoke candidly to the group, who stood outside the Mesa Verde restaurant, dominating its front entrance and outdoor patio. He decried the effects of Proposition 47, passed by voters in 2014. It changed some nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors in a cost-saving effort to reduce prison and jail populations.

The law, however, has backfired by contributing to increased criminal activity, Bakkila said.

“We’re not here to sugarcoat anything,” he added.

Bakkila discussed how residents can keep their property safer — invest in home surveillance equipment, he advised — and what the Police Department is doing to regain numbers in its ranks.

He noted the department’s recent revival of bike patrol officers, and how it will boost its traffic division, making 2016 “the year of traffic.”

Costa Mesa is also creating a community service detail, comprised of three officers whose sole focus will be quality-of-life issues.

Bakkila urged Costa Mesa residents, even if they want to remain anonymous, to call police dispatch directly — (714) 754-5255 — and not be hesitant to report issues.

To that end, he said, Costa Mesa always has between seven and nine officers on patrol at any given time.

“What police officers want, more than anything, is to catch the guy,” Bakkila said. “And now that we’re putting more officers on the street, we’re going to be able to respond quicker.”

“If you see something out of place in your neighborhood, call us,” he added. “Please.”

“Even at 5 o’clock in the morning?” one woman asked.

“Please! They’re so bored. They’re asleep at 5 o’clock in the morning,” Bakkila quipped. “They’re trying to stay awake.”

The meeting was cordial, with the exception of one man who said he was frustrated with the meeting format.

“We don’t care what you think,” he told Bakkila. “All we’re here for is for you to listen to what people who live in this community think about what it’s like to live in this community — so you can shut up now.”

The comment aroused boos. Moments before his departure, the man accused attendees of helping Bakkila “and his police union.”

Bakkila said a better description of Costa Mesa police’s rank-and-file union is that it’s a collective-bargaining unit, mandated by the state, and that he’s actually in the police management association.