Altadena Filming Committee posed questions to representative from law enforcement

Altadena Filming Committee has released meeting notes from a session with representatives from the LA County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The meeting was held this past February. It was one in a series of consultative meetings the Committee has held to get a better understanding of how the County manages the film permitting process as well as capture the questions and concerns that Altadeneans have about filming in the community.

The Committee posed the following questions to the law enforcement representatives:

• What is the role of the on-site law officer? Do they work for the film company or the community?
• Can an on-site law officer give a ticket or tow away a vehicle that is parked in a posted No Parking area?
• FilmLA includes the following condition on all Altadena filming permits: “No cast or crew parking on area streets.” The provision is frequently ignored by film companies. Can the onsite law officer enforce that condition by ticketing cast and crew cars parked on neighborhood streets?
• On occasion, film production vehicles create a disturbance by appearing at the location prior to the permitted arrival time and leaving after the permitted departure time. If that occurs, should a community member report the permit violation to the Sheriff’s Department? If so, what would the Sheriff do?
• There is a perception that law officers just sit in their patrol cars and do not actively enforce permit conditions or address safety concerns like production vehicles that obstruct cross traffic at intersections or at a driveway. Is this standard proceedure?
• If a neighbor interferes with a permitted filming activity, can a law officer ticket or otherwise restrain the disruptive neighbor?
• Is a law officer required for every film shoot?
• What are the consequences for violations of permit conditions?

Here's a few highlights from the meeting minutes:

The committee learned that the Sheriff's Department and the LA County Department of Public Works have been holding discussions to address filming-related, traffic concerns on Altadena streets. The officers clarified that the law enforcement responsibility is primarily safety and not permit enformcement. They also explained that an officer can ticket a car in a posted 'no-parking' zone, but cannot ticket a vehicle violating permit conditions. Similarly, officers do not enforce permitted arrival and departure times. In the case of early arrival, the officer will contact FilmLA.

The minutes also include contact information from the Sheriff's Department and the CHP

The full text of the minutes is available on the Altadena Town Council web site. Here's a link: http://bit.ly/2pevRxP.