Brandon Hunter was robbed twice on his way to and from Crenshaw High School. Now a senior, Brandon had two expensive SideKick 2 smartphones snatched from him during his 9th and 10th grade years.

"One guy he actually went to this school and he ended up getting kicked out," Brandon said. "The second time the guy had a gun."

Officials say such lawlessness dubbed "pocket checks" once played out daily in front of Crenshaw High. "When kids are walking to and from school they are often times accosted by gang members where personal items are stolen," CHP Capt. Tommi Tyler said.

Today the rowdy scene has calmed down. Law enforcement swarms the area and a private security firm, hired by the Los Angeles Urban League and staffed by members of the Nation of Islam, watches students as they travel to and from campus.

The aggressive patrol is a major element of the Los Angeles Urban League's Neighborhoods@Work initiative, which began in 2007 and aims to improve the quality of life in a 70-block region surrounding Crenshaw High, called Park Mesa Heights.

The CHP and LAPD have each assigned 10 officers and two sergeants, called the Safer Cities II unit, to patrol the neighborhood. The unit is heavily involved in community policing and also monitors gang activity. A state CalGrip grant pays for the CHP officers and the money for the LAPD officers comes out of the city budget.

In addition, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department provides a program aimed at reducing recidivism and the City Attorney's Office has assigned a neighborhood prosecutor to Park Mesa Heights.

The Urban League credits the combined effort with a 15.5 percent drop in violent crime, compared to 14.2 percent citywide, from 2007 to 2009, according to LAPD statistics. Property crime rose last year, a spike the Urban League attributes to the severe economic downtown.

On a recent afternoon while LAPD and CHP squad cars rolled down the street, Crenshaw Dean Bill Vanderberg watched students as they flowed out of school, down the steps and onto 11th Avenue.

"I remember what it was before they came, and every day at dismissal it was like the old Ice Cube song, 'It must have been a good day I didn't need to use my AK,'" Vanderberg said, radio in hand. "It could get pretty hot out here in terms of fights and gang activity."

Police say assigning the same officers to the area makes for better relations with students. "There are still problems," said LAPD Officer Erwin Rocha, "but what happens when there is an issue, we are there to deal with it quickly."

Providing students with a safe passage will allow for further gains, said Urban League CEO Blair Taylor. "If you tried walking to school, going to a classroom and somebody holds you up at knifepoint and then you are supposed to go in and learn, it is an absurdity on its face," Taylor said. "So there is no way those kids can be asked to learn until you make that environment around the school safer."

Students say the safety they feel around school dissipates outside Crenshaw High's perimeter.

"In the school area, yeah it's got better," said Michelle White, a 9th grader at Crenshaw High. "But as far as out of the school area it's not that good."

Erica Torres, 16, said "the big streets" like Crenshaw and Slauson are now feared by students. "Most kids are scared," Erica said. "They don't walk around with confidence like 'I can walk around with my phone in my hand' because they feel like it could get snatched."

                 Crenshaw student Brandon Hunter.

Brandon, who will attend Cal State Bakersfield in the fall and plans to major in mathematics, said he feels at ease around Crenshaw's perimeter. "I am being protected by somebody in a reasonable reach if I was in distress," said Brandon in between bites of ice cream, as he stood in front of the school gates.

Security And The Nation Of Islam

The four security guards assigned to patrol the area around Crenshaw High School are employed by Security Measures, a private firm operated by Steven Echols, a self-avowed member of the Nation of Islam.

School officials and Urban League leaders say the firm delivers outstanding service and that it's irrelevant that employees belong to the organization headed by Louis Farrakhan, whose anti-Semitic views and creed of racial separatism are widely controversial. The company stations three security guards at former hotspots surrounding Crenshaw High and has one patrol car that circles the area.

CHP Sgt. Lee Martin said the group's ties to the Nation of Islam raised concerns among law enforcement at first, but the firm is now their "biggest ally" while policing the school.

"Those guys have been absolutely wonderful," Martin said.

Echols, operator of Security Measures, said the firm is a "full service security company" with employees from different backgrounds, and that not everyone on the Crenshaw patrol is a Nation of Islam member. In interviews with the three security guards stationed outside Crenshaw, two said they belonged to the Nation of Islam and one said he did not. All three said a fourth guard driving around in a patrol car was also a member.

Echols said "the spirit of the company comes from the ideals of the Nation of Islam: self-reliance, education, discipline, responsibility."

Joe R. Hicks, a longtime civil rights advocate and former head of the city of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, said the hire is "not at all" appropriate. "You certainly wouldn't go out and hire people, though they might be nice individual guys, from the Ku Klux Klan to provide security details for anything."

Urban League CEO Blair Taylor, in an e-mail to Neon Tommy, defended the selection of Security Measures and praised Echols. "He has a proven track record of providing security support services for communities of all ethnicities, and absolutely no record of having his religious beliefs interfere with his ability to serve the community," Taylor wrote.

Taylor said Security Measures ensures "the safety of each and every student."

"It should be noted," Taylor wrote, "that this is not some empirical experiment of racial interaction for journalistic interpretation or debate but real life, day-to-day coordination of dedicated individuals and organizations to make positive changes for the school environment and the students regardless of race and religion."

Declaring War On Cruising

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Lee Martin leans out of the window of his patrol car on a balmy Saturday afternoon in late April to ask a woman if she needs help.  Her SUV--emergency lights flashing-- broke down in the middle of the street adjacent to Crenshaw High School.

Martin pushes the SUV to the side of the road with his car, and the woman thanks him--a large smile crossing her face.

"We'll be in the neighborhood," Martin says, still behind the wheel, "I'll come back to check on you."

An hour later, Martin races down Crenshaw Boulevard, siren blaring to help fellow Highway Patrol officers who have established a perimeter near 10th Avenue and Hyde Park Boulevard after four young men bolted from a green Volvo following a traffic stop.

By the end of the night, CHP officers made 13 arrests, issued 60 tickets and impounded seven vehicles.

At midnight, Crenshaw Boulevard--once a Mecca for cruising, racing, and burnouts-- is noticeably quiet--traffic moves along peacefully, reminiscent of the tranquil suburban neighborhood Crenshaw once was.

Martin said the scene on the boulevard was chaos when the CHP first arrived to police the area in January 2009.

"Thousand of cars and everyone doing something different; people on the roofs; people drag racing; people doing donuts; it was just a big cloud of smoke."

Cruising on Crenshaw is a past time remembered fondly by some including Martin, a 30-year CHP veteran. Martin, a Bay Area native, traveled to Los Angeles in his '55 Chevy to enjoy nights on the Boulevard as a teenager.

"I had a hot car, and so you come up there with the guys, and 'We're going to LA', that used to be the biggest thing," Martin said.  

He now stops it.

"It became violent," Martin said matter-of-factly.

Law enforcement began to look into the cruising problem after the Urban League informed officers of residents' complaints, said Martin.

That communication, he said, is one of the major benefits of partnering with the Urban League. "People talk to the Urban League," Martin said. "If they see something out there they don't like, they have someone to talk to that is not going to enforce them."

To tackle the problem, the CHP first sent a film crew to videotape the cruising on Crenshaw; then they devised a plan to lessen the activity that often halted traffic and kept residents awake at night.  

Rocha said the LAPD and CHP have reduced cruising roughly 60 to 70 percent.

"It will pick back up in the summer time," Rocha added. "They'll try to test the waters again, but if they see us out in force, if they see there is a big visibility then they don't want to play with us."

Once Crenshaw calmed down, some cruisers moved off the main street and into the neighborhood. Members of the Cherrywood block club alerted law enforcement in March to cruising that was going on east of the boulevard, said Martin.

In response, CHP shifted over and has started to further police the area, he said.

"It's quite disrupting if you have to get up to go to work," said Madeline Jones, who lives on the corner of Hubert and Olmsted avenues, where cruisers have moved.

Jones, who has lived in the neighborhood for three decades, said the cars show up as early as 4 a.m., rev their engines, skid out, and speed off.  The disturbance has been going on for at least six months, she said. Large black circular skid marks are visible from her front yard.  

"Our concern is they'll spin out and do something crazy and crash into one of our vehicles," said Jones.

Toward the end of his shift, CHP officer Simeon Yarbrough arrested a middle-aged man on a $26,000 outstanding warrant after he made an illegal u-turn.

Handcuffed and in the front seat of Yarbrough's patrol car on West Avenue, the man expressed indignation for being pulled over and arrested.

"What's Highway Patrol doing over here anyway?" he exclaimed.

Yarbrough said the question is a common one, but people may stop asking soon.

While the LAPD's role in Safer Cities is secure, the Highway Patrol may be on its way out.  The state grant that supports their efforts expires at the end of 2010, Sgt. Martin said.

If the grant is not renewed and the CHP leaves, Martin fears any gains will be imperiled.

Said Martin: "For us to regain what we already have is going to take forever if at all. You can never get it back once you've captured it."

Increasing Community

Four times a year, the Urban League and its safety partners gather at Crenshaw High to discuss neighborhood issues.  Among the roughly 60 attendees at the most recent meeting were Dion and Nicole Smith. The couple, in their early 30s, was some of the youngest to attend.

"I live there and I can't expect anybody else in the community to be involved if I am not involved," Dion Smith said, describing his motivation for attending.

Smith said the most pressing issue in the community is the breakdown of the family, especially the absence of fathers in the lives of children.

He said the Urban League recently followed up with him over the phone, and that he plans to get involved further.

"It's nice to know the Urban League has a program to help a community such as ours," Smith said. "It's important, but it's not a terrible area -- there are terrible parts."

In one effort to spur community involvement, the Urban League -- alongside the LAPD - has started new block clubs in the area -- a number Taylor puts at 22.

Block clubs, which are essentially a neighborhood watch for specific blocks, have been around for decades. The 2nd Avenue block club began in the early 1960's, but tapered off as the years progressed. It was restarted in the mid 90's and today meets once a month.

"It kind of brings it in from this big humongous city down to our small little community where we can try to keep ourselves safe," said Mary Williams, president of the 2nd Ave. block club.

On April 22, seven members of the club, all women and mostly older, gathered in LaVelle Raines' small stately home on Second Avenue--a Neighborhoods@Work sign planted on her front lawn.  Raines' son, Johnnie Raines, is heavily involved with several Urban League and law enforcement programs, and serves as the civilian co-chair on the Southwest Community Police Advisory Board.

                 CEO Blair Taylor on crime rates.

"We're really the eyes for the police captain," LaVelle Raines said, "because they can't see everything, but we can, we can report to them."

The women discussed neighborhood concerns including prostitutes and loud parties at nearby businesses with LAPD Officer Sunny Sasajima.

The lack of community involvement "makes it easy for residents to be victimized," Sasajima said.

"[The block club] opens up more communication. In a lot of communities you have folks eager to call... eager to call...and in turn it's a safe neighborhood," Sasajima said. "That's something we want to try to get to be the norm in these communities."

As the Urban League continues in their five-year effort, challenges persist. The organization has historically been considered removed from Park Mesa Heights, located "up on the hill" in affluent View Park.  Acknowledging those concerns, Pamela Bakewell, chief officer of Neighborhoods@Work, recently added a community outreach component to the initiative.

"I tell my team to get out there...knock on those doors," Bakewell said. "We have a strategic outreach campaign."

But not all see the league making the transformation.

Eleanor Stewart, a 2nd Avenue block club member, said she remains skeptical of the initiative and the Urban League staff. On instruction from Raines, Stewart said she put a Neighborhoods@Work sign in her front lawn, but said she rarely sees the Urban League in the neighborhood.

"I just don't feel like there is a contact with them," Stewart said. "If it wasn't for Miss Raines we wouldn't know what meetings are being held. We wouldn't know who is having the meetings."