Crime & Safety

Top Cop Taking Aim at Graffiti, Traffic

Lt. Patrick Higa became chief of Lake Forest's Police Services in April.

Lake Forest might be the seventh safest city in America, but its police chief, Lt. Patrick Higa, doesn't intend to let its Police Services Department rest on those laurels.

"My number one goal is to provide safety in whatever form that takes," he said.

Higa has been running the city's police services since April, when he took over the position of chief from Lt. Douglas Doyle, .

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In a town where a significant percentage of the crimes can be classified as crimes of opportunity, preventative policing is the name of the game, he said.

In any given month, from 30 percent to as much as 75 percent of the crimes that take place in Lake Forest could be prevented, Higa estimated.

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Crime prevention activities can extend to figuring out how to stop traffic collisions from occurring in the first place, rather than simply citing errant motorists, Higa said.

That's one of his goals in the next six months of his tenure as chief.

So is ensuring that new hires match up to the standard of deputies that currently work for Lake Forest's police services.

After a number of its deputies were hired away or promoted—which Higa believes directly reflects the quality of the people policing the city—the department is actively hiring.

In Higa's eyes, the city's top three public safety issues right now are traffic, graffiti and—a distant third—larceny, such as vehicle burglaries.

As part of the Orange County Sheriff's Department, Higa's department can reach out for county resources when more significant issues, such as gang or narcotics issues, crop up, Higa added.

At the moment, Lake Forest is calm enough that asking for OCSD to contribute extra resources is unnecessary, he said.

Citizen input about local crime incidents keeps the department informed and able to focus on crime prevention, he said.

That contact helps police "get a feel for what the concerns are," he said.

Higa was from a number of candidates, who were interviewed by City Manager Robert Dunek.


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