Ian Gregor
DAILY BREEZE
When Hawthorne Mayor Larry Guidi returned from a recent business trip with two other City Council members, he didn't hail a taxi to take the group home from Los Angeles International
Airport. He called the Hawthorne Police Department.
Police dispatched a squad car to pick up the trio, removing an on-duty officer from patrolling the
city that had the most crime in the South Bay last year. The 4- to 5-mile cab ride would have cost about $15; in addition to their salaries, each Hawthorne council member receives $125 a month for
miscellaneous expense reimbursements. This wasn't the first time Guidi has used on-duty officers to chauffeur him to or from the airport. He also called for a police ride in January, and several officers
said it is not unusual for the mayor to make such requests. Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, said police escorts are justified if elected officials
face security threats. Otherwise, they are inappropriate, he said.
"What could possibly be the justification?" said Stern, whose nonprofit organization studies ethics and campaign financing.
"The Police Department should not be the mayor's chauffeur. ... They should be out there catching criminals and they should not be chauffeuring anybody."
Stern facetiously suggested that there must not be much crime in Hawthorne if police have time to drive elected officials around. In fact, Hawthorne led the South Bay in crimes in 2004 and its
officers answer more calls than their counterparts in any other local city, records show.
Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization
that promotes open and accountable government, said the question boils down to what role police should play in the communities they serve. "There are times when elected officials may be in need
of police protection but common sense has to prevail," Boyle said. "The question is where a police officer should be spending his or her time, ferrying the mayor or the city council around or
protecting the area at large."
Guidi did not return a telephone call from the Daily Breeze.
In recent months, Guidi called for a police ride from LAX on May 24, when he returned from Las
Vegas with Councilmen Pablo Catano and Louis Velez, and in late January, when he returned from Sacramento with Councilman Gary Parsons, according to police sources. Both trips involved city business.
Hawthorne police Lt. Wayne Salmon said officers occasionally pick up Guidi when he returns from trips involving city-related business but not, as far as he knows, from personal travel. The
department has honored such requests from the city's elected officials for years, said Salmon, who has been on the Hawthorne police force since the early 1970s.
"It's just something we do," Salmon said, adding that the department does not have a formal policy on the issue. Several other officers, all of whom requested anonymity, said they didn't see anything
wrong with driving elected officials to and from the airport. Hawthorne police also sometimes take fellow officers to and from LAX, they said. "That's standard for us," one officer said. "That's just
the Hawthorne way of doing business."
But another officer said he wouldn't encourage elected officials to solicit police rides. I think it's
hard for an officer to say no to the mayor," he said. "If they call, we don't say no."
Catano did not return calls from the Daily Breeze and Velez declined to comment. But Parsons said
he doesn't condone using police vehicles for personal transportation."I feel hypocritical saying that when I did that once," Parsons said. "Although I did ride back once, I feel it's inappropriate and
would not do it again."
Police officials from the two other South Bay cities closest to LAX -- El Segundo and Manhattan
Beach -- said they cannot recall incidents in which on-duty officers transported council members to the airport.
El Segundo police Lt. Walter Krumbach said police would honor such a request from an elected
official provided the trip was city-related and that taking an officer off the streets wouldn't jeopardize public safety.
Manhattan Beach police Capt. Randy Leaf said police might provide rides to elected officials under "abnormal circumstances."
