The Power of Prevention

Rescuing a frightened child from her abusive parents. Making sure a mentally disturbed man gets the treatment and supervision he needs before he gets into a violent confrontation.

Are these decent ways to spend money earmarked for public safety?

You bet your future crime rate they are.

That is why The Times applauds last week’s agreement to take $1.1 million destined for the sheriff’s, district attorney’s and corrections departments, and redirect it toward helping the Board of Supervisors balance the county budget without doing greater violence to agencies that provide social services and mental health care.

The ounce of prevention provided by such agencies is every bit as essential as increased policing to keep Ventura County’s future safe.

Two years ago, Sheriff Larry Carpenter and Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury engineered an ordinance that protects their budgets from exactly the sort of trimming that other county agencies are facing now, by steering all money from the Proposition 172 half-cent sales tax to specific public safety agencies, guaranteeing them increases to keep up with inflation and prohibiting cuts that might offset that windfall. Gov. Pete Wilson’s COPS (Citizens Option for Public Safety) program adds more ammunition to the arsenal they wield against crime.

Most county residents would say that is great. There is no arguing with the overall success--and importance--of Ventura County’s crime-fighting efforts.

But evidence is all around us that “public safety” means more than police and fire protection.

The fatal shooting of mental patient William Ramos during a struggle with Ventura police earlier this month was a tragedy for everyone involved. Younger criminals are committing ever-more-heinous crimes, leading to executions at earlier ages. An increasing number of confrontations with the mentally disturbed and crimes against--and by--inadequately supervised juveniles are troubling omens of trends certain to grow.

“If things continue along,” foster parent advocate Carolyn Gyurkovitz told the supervisors during a budget hearing last week, “you can plan on dissolving child protective services completely in the not too distant future and giving their budget to the police department, because they will need it to take care of the community when the children grow up.”

Last year, a grand jury questioned the constitutionality of the ordinance, which ties the hands of future boards of supervisors. It may take a lawsuit to resolve this dilemma if politics cannot.

But after the supervisors recover from this week’s budget blood bath, they should take a hard look at where the current arrangement is taking us--and ask if that is really where we want to go.