A Downside of Outsourcing Police
AN ILLUSTRATIVE TALE
In a very interesting article behind the pay wall of the Orange County Register today, HERE, titled "Mission Viejo gets creative to fill vacant deputy spots", Staff Writer Brooke Edwards Staggs presents a disturbing view of what can happen when the Orange County Sheriff's Department provides law enforcement under contract to a municipality. Read it if you can.
SOME ELEMENTS FROM THE ARTICLE
The high, or low, lights of the article include the following:
Some local politicians and their yapping Pit Yorkie sycophants have been screeching for the Orange County Sheriff's Department to take over law enforcement in Costa Mesa because our staffing levels are approaching dangerously low levels.
SOLID, PROFESSIONAL ADVISE IGNORED
If those politicians had listened to their own consultants, Management Partners, and/or former Interim Chief Steve Staveley and allowed the authorized staffing levels to be more appropriate for a city the size and complexity of Costa Mesa we likely would not be in this fix.
RECRUITMENT DELAYED
If those politicians had allowed Chief Tom Gazsi to begin recruiting for anticipated vacancies when he wanted to instead of stiff-arming him for more than a year we might not find ourselves in this situation.
HATCH'S "PLAN"...
At the last City Council meeting Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch mentioned a "plan" to help resolve the staffing issues in the CMPD and we were told that he and Chief Gazsi would be working on it. It will be very interesting to see what kind of plan results. In the meantime, the men and women of the CMPD continue to work long shifts to keep our streets safe.
The high, or low, lights of the article include the following:
- Retirements and promotions have left many contract cities with an unusually high number of vacant deputy positions.
- Mission Viejo has had as many as eight or 10 of its 47 patrol positions vacant at one time because of retirements throughout the county and local deputies being promoted to fill those positions.
- In the article Mission Viejo Police Chief Brad NewMyer indicated that working excessive overtime to cover shifts can lead to injuries, illness and mistakes on the job.
- By trying to cover shifts with officers from outside Mission Viejo, unfamiliar with the terrain and streets, response times have increased.
- Sheriff's Department trainees are typically assigned to Jail duty following graduation until there is an opening on a patrol beat, when they are teamed up with another officer for a five-month tour as a trainee. They cannot work alone during that time.
- All but one of their vacant deputy positions is assigned to a current trainee.
- Without fully trained officers shifts must be covered by overtime.
- Mission Viejo plans to add two new trainee positions to pretrain deputies to be ready for anticipated vacancies. It will cost $103,830 for the remainder of the fiscal year.
- Apparently Mission Viejo was reimbursed $700,000 by the Sheriff's Department last year because of vacancies.
Some local politicians and their yapping Pit Yorkie sycophants have been screeching for the Orange County Sheriff's Department to take over law enforcement in Costa Mesa because our staffing levels are approaching dangerously low levels. SOLID, PROFESSIONAL ADVISE IGNORED
If those politicians had listened to their own consultants, Management Partners, and/or former Interim Chief Steve Staveley and allowed the authorized staffing levels to be more appropriate for a city the size and complexity of Costa Mesa we likely would not be in this fix.RECRUITMENT DELAYED
If those politicians had allowed Chief Tom Gazsi to begin recruiting for anticipated vacancies when he wanted to instead of stiff-arming him for more than a year we might not find ourselves in this situation.HATCH'S "PLAN"...
At the last City Council meeting Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch mentioned a "plan" to help resolve the staffing issues in the CMPD and we were told that he and Chief Gazsi would be working on it. It will be very interesting to see what kind of plan results. In the meantime, the men and women of the CMPD continue to work long shifts to keep our streets safe.Labels: Mission Viejo, Orange County Sheriff's Department, Tom Gazsi, Tom Hatch
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 3/19/2014 10:59:00 PM
3 Comments:
I don't care what statistic say or don't say, the crime is worse now than it was 2 years ago. Its noticeably worse, in fact. I am ashamed and embarrassed for this city.
I agree with WMC. I think Mcarthy's article about crime decreasing is a joke. I cannot wait to vote these clowns out.
I would love to see what the true response times were pre-Riggy compared to now with the staffing issues for the CMPD. By response times, I mean from the time the actual call came in to the CMPD to the time an officer arrives. Not like what happened in LA, where they got in trouble for hiding it by only measuring the time from being dispatched to the time police or fire arrived at the location.
Sounds like OCSD is experiencing the same slow and painful process of hiring qualified officers as many of the rest of the city depts. here in SoCal. Maybe they should call Mensinger and ask him about sending over some of that "line around the block" that Costa Mesa has.
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