Deputies Union Calls for 2 Officers Per Squad Car

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies launched an effort Wednesday to put two officers in most if not all of their patrol cars.

“It’s a safety issue,” said Deputy Roy Burns, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, who made the announcement in connection with California Peace Officer Memorial Week. “Law enforcement people are being killed at an alarming rate in one-person cars.”

But Assistant Sheriff Larry Waldie said funding considerations make the proposal unlikely to gain support. “It would be ideal, and I know the sheriff would love to have it, but it’s just not fiscally realistic,” he said.

The union hopes to make its case to Sheriff Lee Baca with a six-month pilot study for which it is seeking state and federal grant funding of $5 million to $10 million. Burns said the money would pay for up to 55 additional deputies for a year and research to gauge the efficiency of two-officer teams.

Burns said the union understands the need for belt-tightening but believes two-deputy cars are more efficient and more effective.

“Many deputies will tell you that working by themselves, they’re reluctant to stop multiple gang members in a car, where two deputies will go ahead and make the stop,” he said. Even if more deputies are not hired, the union hopes to persuade the department to switch to two-deputy patrols.

Waldie agreed that more deputies were needed. But without significant new funding, response times would be adversely affected by using two-deputy teams because there would be fewer cars available for the same number of calls, he said.

Three out of every four Los Angeles County sheriff’s cars go on patrol with one deputy, Burns said. A statewide study showed that between 1993 and 2002, 20 peace officers patrolling by themselves were killed, while an additional 16 were slain as part of two-officer teams.

According to the union, the department lost 1,300 deputy positions in the last two years because of budget cuts.