City Council to Weigh Using Deputies for Some Patrols

LONG BEACH —  City council members, saying they are tired of the in-house squabbling with the police union and the continued increases in crime, this week agreed to consider hiring Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to patrol parts of the city.

The council decided Tuesday to ask Sheriff Sherman Block to prepare a plan for deputies to patrol the north and northeastern parts of the city. The council expects to receive that study within 60 days.

Hiring sheriff’s deputies may prove to be cheaper than adding more officers to the city police force, officials said.

The council’s action is also designed to send a message to the Long Beach Police Officers Ann. to stop its fighting with management, officials said.

“Maybe this says to the police union, ‘Business-as-usual isn’t going to cut it anymore,’ ” Councilman Les Robbins said.

The proposal calls for sheriff’s deputies to patrol the northeastern neighborhoods adjacent to Lakewood and the neighborhoods in the northernmost areas of the city.

Those areas would most likely be served by the sheriff’s Carson and Lakewood stations.

Between 30 and 50 Long Beach officers now cover those areas. They would be reassigned to other portions of the city, Police Chief Lawrence Binkley told the council Tuesday.

Some council members said in interviews that they would consider expanding coverage by sheriff’s deputies if the experiment shows that the deputies provide better service than Long Beach officers. A few said they would even consider abolishing the Long Beach Police Department altogether, using sheriff’s deputies if their service is better and if the long-running dispute between the union and management does not end.

The Long Beach Police Officers Assn., which signed a new contract earlier this year after a long and bitter battle, is now conducting a no-confidence vote against Binkley among its members.

The chief and other city officials said previously that they had hoped the contract agreement would signal smoother labor-management relations. But union president Mike Tracy said the members are still upset over the increase in disciplinary measures against police officers last year.

Robbins, a sheriff’s deputy, said the expansion of sheriff’s patrols into other areas of Long Beach is “a very real possibility. If it will work in one or two areas of the city, then you could make a projection that it will work elsewhere.”

Councilman Evan Anderson Braude and Councilman-Elect Doug Drummond, who takes office next month, also said they would consider expanding sheriff’s patrols.

Braude said the initial patrols “will give us an indication whether it’s a viable option” to expand.

Braude, Robbins and Drummond emphasized, however, that they would prefer to retain a city police force.

“Right now, I don’t want to say we would give up the Long Beach Police Department,” Braude said.

Other council members also expressed reservations about eliminating the department. Councilman Jeff Kellogg said he doubts that he would vote for such a plan. “You have more control with your own police department, and you have a closer working relationship with your own department,” he said.

Longtime Councilman Tom Clark also opposed the idea. He was the only council member Tuesday to question whether the city should negotiate with the Sheriff’s Department. “I’ll support a study,” Clark said, “(but) I have some reservations about how it would work.”

If approved, Long Beach would be the largest city to contract with the Sheriff’s Department, Assistant Sheriff Jerry Harper said. The department contracts with 39 cities and also polices the unincorporated areas of the county, serving 2.4 million people.

Service by the Sheriff’s Department is likely to cost Long Beach less because the city would no longer have to provide training, facilities or equipment, Harper and Robbins said.

City officials have been under increased pressure to do something about crime, which has sharply increased over the last two years.

“Obviously, we’re going to have to do a better job,” Mayor Ernie Kell told Binkley. “It’s not your fault. I think you people do an outstanding job in the Police Department.”

The proposal that surfaced Tuesday was partly the result of the continuing battle between the Police Officers Assn. and Binkley, officials said.

“This is partly the result of the ongoing struggle between management and the union. The City Council is tired of it--very, very tired of it,” Robbins said.

Braude added: “If (the officers are) not going to stop the fighting, they should leave, they should transfer, they should go somewhere else.”

Tim Uribe, a board member of the Police Officers Assn., said that the council’s decision to approach the Sheriff’s Department “proves what we’ve been saying all along--that Chief Binkley cannot manage that department.”

Binkley declined to comment, saying that City Manager James Hankla requested that all questions be referred to him.

City officials said the idea had been quietly discussed for months but that it was only in the last two weeks that Hankla had called Block to discuss it.

At the time, Hankla was working on a proposed set of fee increases to pay for additional police officers. Voters earlier this month rejected a ballot measure that would have created a new property tax levy to pay for more police. Then, the Police Officers Assn. announced its plans to call for a vote of no confidence against the chief.

“That was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back,” Robbins said. “That (proposed) vote of no confidence angered a lot of people in City Hall. Believe me, they are hot.”

The police union expects to announce the results of its vote next month. The council Tuesday gave Chief Binkley a vote of confidence. Later in the meeting, Binkley and council members exchanged laudatory remarks, thanking each other repeatedly for support.

“Top marks to you, guy,” Vice Mayor Wallace Edgerton told Binkley.

“I can’t say enough thanks to the city manager and the City Council,” Binkley responded.

Council members said that contracting with the Sheriff’s Department for portions of the city would create some “healthy competition” with local police officers.

“No one ever said that competition is bad, and I feel really strongly about our team,” Kellogg said.

Uribe disputed the suggestion that competition would improve service.

“Since when do police departments compete against one another for goods and services? We don’t sell a product. We provide a service,” he said.