Long Beach : Request to Curtail Sheriff’s Patrols by Summer Denied

The Long Beach City Council has brushed aside a recommendation to send the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department packing from the 5th Council District this summer.

The Public Safety Advisory Commission had asked the council to end sheriff’s coverage in the 5th District this July and return the area to the Police Department’s jurisdiction as the first step in restoring local police coverage to the entire city. The council last year gave the Sheriff’s Department a contract for law enforcement services in the 5th, 8th and 9th districts in the wake of staffing, morale and union problems in the Police Department.

The police union is lobbying to get the areas back and the Public Safety Advisory Commission has agreed that all of Long Beach should be covered by the city Police Department.

But city officials say they are happy with the deputies’ performance. Instead of following the commission’s recommendation, the council ordered the city manager’s office to devise a plan to phase out the deputies over an unspecified period of time. That motion, made by Councilman Clarence Smith, passed 5 to 2. Councilmen Douglas Drummond and Jeffrey A. Kellogg voted no and Councilmen Warren Harwood and Les Robbins did not vote. Robbins is a sheriff’s deputy and Harwood works for the county, so conflict-of-interest regulations preclude both from voting on the matter.