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Aug 28, 2008,

With the construction of L.A. Live - also known as the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District and "Times Square West" - Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Capt. Jodi Wakefield said she has 14 additional officers who were reassigned to cover just the entertainment district. Previously Wakefield only had three there - two officers and one senior lead officer.

"That's new because of the Nokia [Theatre], which was very burdensome on my deployment. And the chiefs agreed, so they supplemented my deployment with 14 officers. And even then, sometimes it's not enough," she said. "But we also hire officers on an overtime basis in uniform, so that supplements it also."

The entertainment district is still under construction, so officers only cover Staples Center, the L.A. Convention Center and Nokia Theatre - but more attractions are on the way. L.A. Live is slated to cost approximately $2.5 billion when fully built out and will include ESPN studios and an ESPN Zone restaurant and arcade complex, restaurants, Grammy Museum, Club Nokia, Lucky Strike bowling alley, The Conga Room, a 54-story Ritz-Carlton/JW Marriott hotel and a 14-screen theater multiplex.

"Because of all the events that will be happening at Nokia, but also with ESPN and the clubs and the restaurants, we had to increase our deployment with that in mind," Wakefield said. "When Nokia and L.A. Live came in, that increased [the number of] events at the Convention Center by 100 percent - even more than that - so that was a concern of ours."
With the ongoing construction, Wakefield said she's hoping to recruit more officers, but unfortunately there isn't currently a budget for that. 

"However, [LAPD] Chief [William] Bratton recognizes the importance of this mecca that's developing down there with a lot of revenue," she said. "But the need - with tens of thousands of people in the small area - for extra officers, he couldn't do anything by redeploying people over here. It's a target, so you keep that in mind, you take that seriously and deploy properly."


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