Anaheim Police Union Chief Pleads for More Officers : Budget: Advisory panel is told that more people and more crime has eroded the quality of life. Fifty additional officers are sought.

ANAHEIM —  In making an emotional plea for more police officers, local police union president Joe Bryan told the city’s Budget Advisory Commission on Wednesday that recent population growth and accompanying violent crime has “drastically changed” the quality of life for local residents.

“It used to be that people had some respect for cops,” Bryan said in an exchange with commission members. “There is no respect for authority now. These guys (police officers) are getting challenged to fistfights in the streets. There are shootings and stabbings going on that might not have happened before. Times are changing drastically.”

Bryan said new city development projects, such as the $3-billion Disneyland expansion, the $100-million sports arena and the recently approved Convention Center expansion will bring more people to Anaheim and increase the burden on what he called an already understaffed department.

The president of the Anaheim Police Officers Assn. has told city officials that the department needs to add 50 more officers to its force of more than 340 just to keep up with growth.

The budget commission, established last year by the City Council after Anaheim grappled with a $20-million revenue shortfall, is expected to provide advice to the city staff in what promises to be a difficult budget year ahead. Already, city officials have speculated that this year’s deficit could run higher than $6 million.

“We understand there is a budget crunch,” Bryan told commissioners. “But drugs are out of control. People are asking for more services. . . . I think we are doing a pretty good job, but its going to reach a point where it’s not going to do any good. It’s getting away from us.”

In addition to the downtown development projects, City Manager James D. Ruth said police will be patrolling expanded city boundaries and dealing with thousands of new residents in the east hills area as part of the Irvine Co.’s 8,000-home Mountain Park development.

“There’s no question that we’ve fallen behind,” Ruth said. “We’re spread out.”

In a discussion of the problems with commissioners, Ruth said the Police Department has made an effort to keep more police on the streets by using more “civilian” office staff. And this week, the department is scheduled to consider a proposal that would have officers on the streets 12 hours a day, on three-day workweeks to provide more patrols during high-crime periods.

Commission Chairman Rick Vaughn told Bryan that if there was no support for attempts at raising city revenue through taxes or fee increases: “We’ve got to look at the largest portion of the budget and that is labor.”

“We don’t want to be confrontational,” Vaughn said.

Bryan said he would prefer that the city give priority to its most important needs and fund them. He said the Police Department should be at the top of that list.

“I’ve got some people who still don’t believe there is a budget crunch,” Bryan said. “They don’t read the newspapers. They are reading law books and are out there catching bad guys.”