Fourth in a series

Re “Azran Says Bad Guys Avoid Culver City”

On this, his final day as a Culver City cop, retiring acting Asst. Police Chief Allen Azran said that while pro-active policework has reduced hometown crime, politicians can take a bow, too.

“A combination of things is responsible,” Mr. Azran said. “Pro-active policing, and you cannot deny that elected officials of this city have prioritized public safety. They have dedicated significant resources to the Police Dept. and the Fire Dept.”

Mr. Azran cited funding. “They have made sure we have adequate funding to have enough officers, that we have the right equipment, that we have the technology we need.

“All of the things that allow us to do our jobs better and more efficiently. They have been amazingly supportive throughout my career, and that is many different City Councils and elected officials.”

As might be expected of that rare Jewish cop, Mr. Azran was born 50 years ago this month in the Fairfax District, heavily Jewish for much of the last century, not so much now.

“But I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and graduated from Grant High School in Van Nuys,” says the trim, superbly conditioned beacon of law enforcement.

How about a Jew becoming a cop? Common, it isn’t.

That hardly slowed Mr. Azran’s lifelong determination to choose a career that nice Jewish boys are born to skip past.

(To be continued)