City may lend police

Costa Mesa City Council members will begin conferring with county officials to increase the police presence in Talbert Regional Park, after a number of residents complained about crime and other problems in the area, council members said.

The park, an unincorporated nature preserve on the Santa Ana River shore, falls under the purview of Orange County.

One proposal, Mayor Eric Bever said, would have Costa Mesa police and park rangers patrol the area for the county, with the county compensating the city.

It wouldn’t be the first time the city carried out services for the county — Costa Mesa has provided services such as trash pick-up and street sweeping in unincorporated sectors in the city’s northeast, Bever said — though it would be the first time the maneuver was used to provide police services.

“Unfortunately, the county doesn’t have the resources to heavily patrol those areas, and of course their jurisdiction is kind of piecemeal all over the county,” Bever said.

“So, I asked the city manager to initiate communication with the county supervisors to allow the city to take over the responsibility for those patrols, and in return, the county would compensate us for the cost of those patrols.”

The plan would provide greater efficiency and protection, as police often patrol in the general vicinity of the park, Bever said.

“It’s really kind of a quagmire, with 32 jurisdictions along the Santa Ana River it gets kind of murky,” he said. “That’s why we’re looking to establish some consistent standards of public safety along that corridor, instead of a patchwork of service.”

Supervisor John Moorlach declined to comment on the proposal, saying he would prefer to read the text from City Manager Allan Roeder before going on the record.

Despite a number of complaints about the safety of the area, local police departments and residents downplayed the frequency of violent crime in the area.

“There aren’t really many crimes, though we have dealt with individuals loitering down there,” Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Bryan Glass said. “People camp down there, live down there. There were some sexual assaults, but I don’t know of any recently.”

Glass added that local authorities periodically made efforts to get the homeless out of the park.

“There were a lot of pushes to get people out,” he said.

Talbert Park’s neighbors said crime used to be a problem, though they couldn’t recall any serious incidents in recent history.

“There used to be, in past years, a problem with homeless people living down there,” Jim Misel of Gleneagles Terrance said.

“We had a few forest fires when they would build fires to stay warm, but we haven’t had one in a long time.”

“I’ve lived here over 20 years and seen lots of fires down here,” Virginia Colwell said. “I know there’s been people shot, or bodies found, but the main thing that I’m concerned about is fires.”

Both Misel and Colwell said they thought current patrols had been effective in curbing such behavior over the past year.

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at chris.caesar@latimes.com. JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.