Share Rising Sheriff’s Costs

No single, simple fix is going to patch the $200-million hole in Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca’s budget. But before trying at the ballot box to make up for rising costs and plummeting state support, Baca -- who is promoting two revenue-raising initiatives for the November ballot -- needs to find as many fixes as he can in the budget at hand. He can start with what the county charges cities for police services.

Roughly half of L.A. County’s 88 cities, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena and Santa Monica, have their own police and fire departments, libraries and other services for residents who live within their boundaries. Forty cities contract with the county for police protection.

The Sheriff’s Department charges cities for patrol deputies and their commanding officers but absorbs overhead costs and provides “extras,” such as bomb squads and homicide detectives, at no charge. Supporters of the policing contracts brag that the arrangement can save as much as 50% over what similar-sized cities spend on full-blown departments, making it a cost-effective way for small, suburban areas to incorporate. Critics agree -- but argue that the savings come at the county’s expense.

Yes, it makes economic sense for smaller cities to hire the Sheriff’s Department rather than create 40 separate police departments. And the county benefits from the relationship as well, in economies of scale. As a 2000 report by the Public Policy Institute of California pointed out, L.A. County’s contracts with cities help it stitch together the patchwork of unincorporated areas it already is obligated to serve, improving response time by better distributing sheriff’s stations.

What the Public Policy Institute report didn’t take into account -- and a recent county audit did -- were changes in police work that have occurred since 1971, when the contract formula still in use was established.

Lab analyses, fingerprint databases and DNA testing are more sophisticated, effective -- and expensive. County officials estimate that billing for these services could bring in an extra $100 million per year, restoring half the sheriff’s recent budget cuts.

Whether or not the county could or should boost charges this much at once, it is only fair that the cities that benefit from these services bear a share of the escalating costs. And it is only fair that Baca turn to them to patch the gap before asking everyone else to raise the sales tax, as one initiative he supports would do, or, worse, expand casino gambling, as would the other.