LAPD Chief Vows 'Sea Of Blue' To Patrol Dodger Stadium
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday pledged a stronger police presence at Dodger Stadium beginning next week.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck hailed the move as a "game changer," and promised to expend any resources necessary to deploy large numbers of officers at the Los Angeles Dodgers' next home series to enhance security.
The move comes in the wake of last Thursday's Dodger Stadium parking-lot attack on San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow, who remains in a coma at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
"If you go to that home stand next week, you're going to see a sea of blue, and it's not going to be Dodgers fans," Beck said. "People will be awed by the response of the Los Angeles Police Department, because we will not suffer this as a city again."
Beck said he will ask the Dodgers to pay for the deployment of police officers at the stadium, but would not say how much it might cost or how many officers he planned to deploy.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Dodgers management consulted with the mayor and Beck about the decision to hire former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton to help review security at the stadium.
"We said great," the mayor said. "But that does not preclude and will not preclude what LAPD does."
The mayor said the Dodgers were without a chief of security operations and were trying to fill the role in the wake of the assault.
Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic and father of two, was wearing a Giants shirt when he was attacked by two people wearing Dodger gear in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers play in San Diego this weekend, then in San Francisco on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before returning home for a four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals beginning April 14.
(©2010 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
