“Area command is intended to do a couple of critical things — one, to give 24-7 responsibility for a geographic area to a police lieutenant and in doing so, hopefully be more responsive to the small issues before they can become big issues, and secondarily, to more effectively engage the public in that process,” De Pompa said.
While there will only be four initial districts — north, south, east and west — the department plans to expand the system and add another district for downtown Glendale, he said.
Lt. Ian Grimes will oversee north Glendale, Lt. Susan Hayn will have the west side of the city, Lt. Tony Futia will supervise the east side, and Lt. Brian Cohen will manage south Glendale.
Each lieutenant has expertise in the area’s common problems, Capt. Kirk Palmer said.
“They are going to have to pay attention to and address the issues that are going on in their area, but they are also going to be responsible for part of the watch-base system, and they are going to have to find ways to get those two systems to integrate as best they can,” De Pompa said.
Lieutenants will have a watch shift, a lead community officer and be in charge of assigning department resources to deal with problems in their areas, he added.
The department’s recent staffing and budget reductions led to the dismantling of the Community Oriented Policing Program, but the officers will assume similar roles under the new area command.
The area commanders will be a “single point of accountability to solve the problem,” which De Pompa said will benefit residents who need only contact one person rather than dealing with several entities.
