Budget cuts and increased retirements are reflected in a slight increase in response times to calls by Sheriff’s deputies. Officials say Malibu is not being short shrifted.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
Although the response times for deputies being sent to crime scenes is inching up countywide, officials with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department say Malibu continues to receive the law enforcement services its residents pay for.
However, rank and file deputies are unhappy about a lack of badges in the department, which has more than 8,500 sworn officers. Some personnel-intensive activities, such as a recent New Year’s Eve DUI checkpoint, had to be canceled due to a shortage of staff, one deputy said.
Budget cuts and increased retirements by midlevel Sheriff’s Department officials are beginning to be reflected in a slight increase in time it takes to get a squad car to a reported crime scene, a spokesman for the office said.
“We’re not concerned by these figures, but at the same time, we are certainly focused on this,” said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.
In the area served by the Malibu-Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, a deputy car will respond to an emergency call within 7.1 minutes, compared with a 6.8 minute response time three years ago, according to an audit performed by the Sheriff’s Department.
A similar slight increase in response time is noted for priority and routine calls in this area. A priority call gets an average 9.8 minute response time, and a routine call gets answered in an average of 20.9 minutes.
Countywide averages for nonemergency calls are much longer, with the average county resident waiting 49.9 minutes for a response to a routine call, more than twice the Malibu area average. But response times for emergency calls remains at about 4 minutes countywide.
“That is very significant, and compares favorably with similar jurisdictions” Whitmore said. “LAPD takes more than six minutes to respond to an average emergency call.”
Both departments, however, have been criticized for being severely understaffed. Sheriff Lee Baca lost the election issue he sponsored last year to raise sales taxes to hire additional deputies statewide.
“There are 22,000 police officers total countywide,” pointed out Whitmore, “compared with New York, which has 40,000 plus. And L.A. County has 10 million residents, compared to 8 million in New York.”
Whitmore said the Sheriff’s Academy has three full classes right now, with a anticipated graduation of 1,000 new deputies. Subtracting retirees, that will mean a net increase of 600 law officers, Whitmore said.
The city of Malibu pays $4.5 million per year for law enforcement services from the Sheriff’s Department, a city official said.
And Malibu’s 12,000 residents seem generally pleased with what they get, said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky.
The city receives a high level of service, particularly in light of its geographic isolation and distance from nearby sheriff’s stations, which are too far away to provide regular backup, she said.
“I get very few complaints,” Barovsky said. “I do think we need another traffic officer on PCH, but we’re negotiating about that.”