Location Cops Get Backup from Film Industry

The problem is that the retired officers continue to lack an understanding of what the community needs.

Each and every encounter I have ever had with a retired police officer assigned to a set Downtown has been negative and ineffective and resolving the complaint.

Each encounter has left me with the impression that these retired offices are hired badges there to do nothing more than steam roll what the production wants and intimidate impacted community members from taking action.

That is NOT why a police office puts on an uniform and badge.

Simply put, these officers have no one but themselves to blame for their elimination from permit enforcement duty.

Are they actual police officers while they are working at the shoots? Or can we confront them as any other incompetent and home-access-blocker person that is not a police officer? Because I usually feel like talking to them in ways I wouldn’t address an officer, but I am not sure I should…. I have to admit I am not very patient when they all suggest a different route instead of letting me get to my building a block away.

Before whining about being inconvenienced by film and TV shoots in your neighborhood, please throw out your television sets and pledge to never watch a movie again. If the problem is real and beyond being inconvenienced, you can always call a real police officer.

Marcos:

I’ve pledged to ignore many television programs, films and products in commercials that have disrupted life and business Downtown through their location filming behavior.

Why don’t you take a moment to read the Los Angeles Municipal Code on location filimg so you understand what a production’s legal requirement is in the City of Los Angeles when filming at ANY location? I think you will find that the entertainment industry has been getting over on the citizens of Los Angeles for many years…

My tax dollars did not go to train police officers so that in their retirement they can wear their uniforms and badges while pleading helpless to enforcing the law on the books when confronted with a righteous complaint and citation of the law.

I welcome active duty police officers to location sets Downtown.

Andrea:

Your best bet is to ask the offending officer for his serial number and then go to lapdonline.org and download a complaint form. Officers wearing the uniform and badge of the City must be held accountable for their behavior if they want the respect associated with those symbols.

Mira que sos malo Marcos!

Thanks Benjamin! I appreciate the information.

Andrea, You are welcome.

To add to my original response to your post, the legal standard under the LAMC is that location filming should only cause minimal interference with the enjoyment and use of adjacent property.

The issue is accountability for film crews Downtown. I understand that hiring active LAPD officers will increase costs, but hiring retired stooges to do their bidding without a care for the neighborhoods is obviously not working. I would be satisfied with more accountability from the rent-a-cops, but I don’t believe the companies will abide by the rules.

I’ve said it before: it’s a matter of respect. For years, Downtown was pretty empty and production units had the streets to themselves. Times have changed, so they should adapt. We don’t want them to leave per se, but we do want them to respect us and not overrun our communities, without warning or without listening to legitimate complaints. Try flying a helicopter over their houses in Hollywood or the Valley at night and see if they accept it without complaining.

This morning at 8:30 AM residents of Bunker Hill including Museum Towers, Grand Towers, and the Omni Hotel were/have been greatly disturbed by excessive “Street racing” filming. It is reported that guests were filing out of their rooms and also flooding the front desk with calls. The racing is excessive and there were NO notices posted at any of the buildings. We are speaking of MAJOR noise, gunning of race cars, motocyles etc. So it’s not just what kind of cops, but the entire filiming process that needs to be addressed.

Don Noyes-More Editor

I agree with Don. The situation today was terrible, with NASCAR race cars doing donuts on Grand from 8:30 am. Finally, at 3:30, I went to ask when they’d be done. The crew were nice enough, explaining that they pay Film LA to notify residents. Needless to say, Film LA didn’t notify anyone. They haven’t posted anything in my building for more than a year. And there’s no use complaining; nothing changes. I think this problem is coming to a head. Again, I have no problem with filming Downtown, but I think notification of residents is essential.

If the Chief of Police decides that retired “rent-a-cops” posing as “real cops” and wearing uniforms is not acceptable, then so be it. All I have to say is that this wouldn’t be an issue if the production-hired rent-a-cops had done their jobs, enforcing the law and the film permits.

I have been shoved off a sidewalk into the street by one of them for simply asking to speak to a production manager about the illegal use of a bull horn by a director next to my condo building. Countless downtown residents have been blocked from legal access to the sidewalks and streets.

I have watched rent-a-cops sit on their lazy asses, eating crew catering and talking on their cell phones while productions violate the law, park their production vehicles in the middle of the street, blast audio playback while a rap star’s posse stands on the sidewalk lighting up joints and getting high.

Property owners (and their tenants who pay the rent) pay property taxes, and therefore have the right to have the Civil Code enforced by the police. The rent-a-cops have proven that they are only hired muscle to protect productions and have no interest in protecting the rights and interests of residents.

Tough luck, production companies - if this costs you more, then cry me a river. You created the situation all on your own.

I agree that the production companies have brought this upon themselves. In the initial filming negotiations, the industry agreed that the system of retired officers was not working, and pledged to work with the LAPD to fix it.

That resulted in a renewed effort on the part of LAPD to reign in and remind the officers of their legal responsibility to the public, not just to the film crews that hire them. Now there are uniformed offices who check in on film shoots to make sure they are obeying the law.

It’s not the officers that will cost the industry more money, it’s the inability for productions to pick and choose what laws to obey.

I can’t imagine the LAPD would agree to this, however.

In my humble opinion, the City set this in motion when it shifted the legal permit issuing authority of the City of Los Angeles from the Department of Building and Safety to the Los Angeles Police Department.

If you believe that four desks at LAPD’s Special Events Unit review in detail each and every film permit FilmLA’s staff of dozens sends over each day, then you force LAPD to put boots on the ground that can observe and enforce the permits it is legally responsible for issuing on behalf of the City. In LAPD speak, it’s a risk management issue.

Not to aid their own fate, each and every retired film cop has the same PR mantra of the administration two mayors ago – “do you know what would happen if this industry left Los Angeles?”

The answer, “Yes, all these century old buildings would still be here and you would not.”

More and more people Downtown seem to be okay accepting that outcome.

One more favorite:

Retired cop, “The man-lift can’t move without that safety backing noise coming on!”

Answer, “Then don’t move the man-lift.”

RC, “Do you know how many billions this industry pours into LA?”

Answer, “Yes, and it is much less than the billions in real estate it disrupts.”

Don’t forget that what we are talking about here is LOCATION filming, not the entire industry. The industry is not and will NEVER leave LA, but it is a convenient threat that often works well enough to give the industry broad latitude to break various laws and rules, rules that if you or I broke would result in our arrest.

Location filming is a perfectly reasonable thing, as long as it follows the law and respects the neighborhoods that it uses. The Downtown Special Conditions have largely achieved this. The problems of the past have been (temporarily) solved.

The Conditions in place right now are temporary, and voluntary on the part of Film LA as a good faith effort until made into law. They have yet to go to City Council, but until they do, keep in m ind that the temporary Conditions re in fact more stringent than the version that will go before City Council.

The industry’s complaints about location security are largely self-serving and must be countered by taking into account the other side, which is the communities impacted by location filming.

In most parts of the city, location crews are despised, and for good reason.

After forty years in the industry, I think I can assure you…

even if you handed these guys EVERYTHING they want and didn’t force them to be good neighbors….if it was cheaper and easier they would be shooting in Canada.

Or in Romania. Some place else.

But they aren’t. And it ain’t because some Downtown resident doesn’t insist they behave themselves. They are here because it is convenient, cheaper than out of state, and because shooting here makes for a much faster turnaround.

It is the same way with locations at the beach and the valley. If they are jerks, and someone complains…the response is that the studios will go to some right to work state like North Carolina…and then what will we do?

Won’t happen. The infrastructure is here…and so are the executives who will not be living Brentwood anytime soon, y’all.

And oh, by the way…the worst of crews down here aren’t studio employees….they are non union commercial outfits. They all think they are DW Griffith…..and none of them seems able to get it thru their heads they don’t need a play back or a bullhorn to pull off a shot where the camera is five feet from the action.

It is very true the Los Angeles remains the largest concentration of sound stages, production equipment and talent (both behind the camera and in front) as well as post production facilities.

Absolutely, the idea that studio, network television, commercial productions and independent films are shot in Los Angeles as part of some larger corporate charity program for the Los Angeles economy is absurd.

Like any other manufacturing process, the entertainment business will flock to where the means of production are the least expensive.

I agree too, commercial shoots are some of the worst offenders Downtown when it comes to protecting the area from burnout. It is amazing to see stabs at “creativity” when each and every car commercial shots in the same handful of blocks in the Financial District.

It’s now sport in my house to see if you can catch a car commercial that wasn’t shot in Downtown Los Angeles…I think Kia and Hyundai have some running but that’s about it. I am beginning to think the Ford Edge is manufactured Downtown and that all Cadillacs must drive through the Second Street Tunnel as part of their assembly line process.

From a resident’s perspective, it would be great to see active duty law enforcement officers on sets Downtown – don’t think street criminals don’t know the difference between a retired film cop and an active duty officer.

Oh, and by the way, Marcos, I have not had a television for 30 years. I also do not go to any movies, or watch them on DVD. So does that qualify me as legitimate in your eyes?

I’m with Bert and Ben on this. Filming isn’t leaving Los Angeles.

But, let’s clear up some of the misconceptions out there:

1) If you are a renter, you will not receive a notification from FilmLA about filming impacts in or around your building. You are dependent on your building owner (And, maybe on your building manager…if you are lucky) to receive notification.

If you want to get the notifications - go to www.filmla.com and join their mailing list.

2) Building owners, shop keepers are sometimes “duped” into signing a survey. I’ve experienced this at my office. A innocuous person stops by the office, asking for you to sign off on a film survey. They will stand there and wait for you to sign it. But, what if you don’t have signing authority? What if you don’t even know what you are signing off on? I don’t own our office building, I don’t have authority to sign off on anything more than a FedEx box…yet the survey person makes it clear, they need this paper back right away. If you push back at all, it’s like you took their puppy.

3) Own your place? How’s your HOA set up to interact with FilmLA? It’s been about a year since the last crush of new HOAs were set up. You-All should be in the swing of things by now - but don’t forget - get a point person to handle the FilmLA requests. You want someone who will be vilgilant, but can work with a film crew that can range from being very appreciative and sympathetic to just total assholes.

Filming isn’t going away. I’d like to see LAPD take a more active role in enforcing permits. I’d also like to see LAPD see some of the crap some residents have had to endure as they’ve attempted to respectfully approach film crews when they have obviously violated their film permit.

The old guys who sit around the film sets now are for the most part, nice guys. However, it’s time that LAPD take their rightful place to ensure public safety, and keep the peace during filming activities. The retired officers aren’t in a position to do this.