Does ozone help reduce pollution?

Using Los Angeles smog as an example. It sounds like people don't understand how the ozone in smog is formed. My understanding is that when you have incomplete combustion in engines, you get not only carbon monoxide but also ozone. Instead of CO2, you get CO plus O. O is ozone, one atom of oxygen. In the air, when O meets CO they merge again to form CO2. So O neutralizes carbon monoxide. Is that the way you see it? Do you view ozone as a harmful pollutant?