Blue line a bit too thin

Dave Brooks

A drop in personnel has Huntington Beach’s police force spread thin,

struggling to meet minimum staffing requirements and response times,

a recent report by Huntington Beach Police Chief Ken Small shows.

Huntington Beach police are currently operating with 214 officers,

down from the 2002/2003 fiscal year when the force had 234. A large

number of retirements after the police union secured a lucrative

pension deal in May 2001 coupled with a hiring freeze brought on by

the state budget crisis left many positions unfilled.

Hiring new officers can be an 18-month process, Small said,

pointing out that the police require a six-month background check,

coupled with time at the police academy and on-the-job training.

Huntington comes in 17th of 21 Orange County cities for

officer-to-citizen ratio. If Huntington Beach were to maintain the

same staffing ratio as Laguna Beach, Small said, the city would have

to nearly double its police force.

The reduction in personnel means police can’t meet minimum

staffing levels 41% of the time, said Small. With 200,000 residents,

Huntington Beach is required to have at least 10 sworn officers and

two sergeants on duty for any one of often-overlapping 11 1/2-hour

shifts. The neighborhood enforcement teams, traffic cops and even

general investigation units are all short of people.

“In some cases, we are booked up two to three months before a

crime is even investigated,” he said.

Response times are also slower than most cities -- of the 21

cities in Orange County, Huntington Beach’s police are the second

slowest when it comes to responding to high-priority crimes in

progress. The average response time for Huntington Beach police in

2004 was seven minutes and five seconds -- the county average was

four minutes and 45 seconds.

The sheer size of Huntington Beach is partially to blame, said

Small, who is working to change the city’s police response policy.

“I think they need to respond to more calls with lights and

sirens,” he said.

The city is also integrating a new computer system to prioritize

calls -- some areas receive between 30 to 50 calls a month but

without more crime analysis, it becomes difficult to pinpoint which

areas are most apt to sound false alarms.

City Councilman Gil Coerper indicated there might be political

support to budget more money in the coming years to hire cops. A

former officer, Coerper said he’d like to see staffing levels

substantially raised.

“If we need to get 240 officers to make it work in Huntington

Beach, then that’s what we need to do,” he said.

The city also plans to begin hiring more officers and recently

approved nine candidates for the Police Academy. Another four could

be brought on within the coming months.

Those officers will handle the city’s influx of new developments,

including the new Bella Terra Mall and the downtown Strand project

and Pacific City. Kohl’s Department store alone generates 100 to 150

arrests, and Bella Terra plans to build a special substation for

several Huntington Beach officers. Small said his department is in

negotiations with Pacific City to relocate the downtown substation

from Walnut Street.

The decentralized patrol system will allow officers to become more

familiar with their beats, especially high-visibility officers in the

downtown area who must adhere to high levels of professionalism,

Small said.

“[The Police Department will] develop a policing plan for the

visitor areas of Huntington Beach that will enhance public safety

while maintaining a positive relationship with merchants, residents

and visitors,” Small wrote in his report.

City Councilman Don Hansen said the police also need to continue

to pursue best practices that will put them ahead of criminals.

“There are people squawking about the helicopters, but it’s our

methods that make us stronger,” he said, later adding, “we need to be

strong managers about the problem, and not just enforcers.”