On June 15th I posted a Juice blog report on the costs of police services and the upcoming contract renewal between the city of Mission Viejo and the OCSD. Supervisor Chris Norby just issued his e-mail newsletter “Norby Notes” which contains the following information that I wish to share with Juice readers.
OC: Good Deal for Contract Cities
Up for ratification at our June 26 meeting are the Sheriff’s Department agreements to provide protection for the 12 OC cities that contract with the County. Costs are based on the service levels requested by each city, which can vary widely. Low per capita costs like Laguna Woods reflect that city’s status as a gated community. High traffic cities like Stanton need more enforcement. Low crime cities like Villa Park may choose high protection levels based on ability to pay. All costs are directly reimbursed to the County by each city.
These costs for contracted service are significantly lower than most cities that operate their own police departments. Direct comparisons can be tricky, however. Most contract cities have lower crime rates to begin with, and many cities with their own police departments enjoy greater day-to-day operational control. A more direct comparison could be made with Yorba Linda, which contracts police services with Brea.
Still, cash-strapped cities should always be aware of the option of contracting out services with the County, whether it’s with the Sheriff’s Department, Animal Control or the OC Library system.
Contract Cities (w/OC Sheriff):
City Annual Per-Capita Cost
Laguna Woods $24
Aliso Viejo 88
Rancho Santa Margarita 106
Laguna Niguel 123
Mission Viejo 129
Lake Forest 138
San Clemente 158
San Juan Capistrano 173
Laguna Hills 177
Villa Park 182
Stanton 198
Other Contract City (w/Brea PD)
Yorba Linda 147
Sample In-House Police Depts
Fullerton 238
Orange 248
Huntington Beach 280
Santa Ana 281
Anaheim 285
In-house police departments are a very expensive proposition. You should also take into account the amount of liability cities assume when they have rougue officers beating and shooting people. Each lawsuit costs the city money. Then there are worker’s compensation claims, the cost of training and recruitment and the headaches dealing with the unions and negotiating labor contracts.
Cities are best served by contracting out police services. Those “hidden” expenses are shared by multiple parties which helps drive the cost down to individual cities.
I have wondered if the Board of Supervisors subsidizes these contracts by not requiring the Sheriff to charge the county-wide overhead burden that is applied by the County Auditor to each county department. In other words, are the contract cities paying the full cost of both direct and indirect charges as determined by the Auditor-Controller?
Dear 6/22/2007 2:07 PM,
Stop wondering, the BOS does not subsidize the 12 contract cities that choose to have the Sheriff provide professional police services. The County’s Auditor-Controller regularly audits the contracts and repeatedly finds the same thing, there is full direct cost recovery to include all County-Wide Cost Allocation Plan (COWCAP) expenses and no subsidies to the cities exist.
If you look at the Sheriff’s police services program, you will see that the organizational chart is lean with very few Chiefs and lots of Indians on the street fighting crime which is a model of efficiency geared at saving the taxpayers’ dollars.
For example, a city like Mission Viejo has a population of around 98,500 and the Sheriff’s police services contract with the city is for 65 employees, included in and managed and supervised by a Chief of Police (a Sheriff’s Lieutenant) and 6 supervisors (Sheriff’s Sergeants) with a annual police budget of about $13 million. By contracting with the Sheriff’s Department the City realizes the economies of scale when it shares the overhead costs of the Sheriff’s human resources management, training, workers comp, risk management, dispatch, fleet maintenance, helicopters, specialized investigative units (homicide, fraud, sex-crimes, gangs, drugs, major accident reconstruction, and juvenile services), along with SWAT, bomb squad, hostage negotiators, search & rescue, dive team, mounted unit, and traffic bureau.
What does the City taxpayers get for their money in return? The City of Mission Viejo is the 4th safest city in America!
In contrast, the City of Newport Beach has a population of around 80,000 with an in-house police department that has 240 employees (148 sworn). Their police department is managed and supervised by a Chief of Police, 3 Captains, 8 Lieutenants, and 21 Sergeants. The City of Newport Beach’s police budget is about $41 million. The City of Newport Beach has the 28th highest crime rate of Orange County’s 34 cities. It looks like the old adage is true, “just because you paid more for it doesn’t mean you’re getting something better.” Based upon the exorbitant amount the taxpayers of Newport Beach are dishing out for police services when compared to their crime statistics, maybe the real crime in Newport Beach is occurring in City Hall.
#3 Nnewport does not seem to be getting much of a good deal. Pretty bloated force. But at least they can afford it there.
When a city decides to turn over services like the police department to the county, does the county typically keep the city’s police force or what happens to city’s cops?
Thanks for any insight.
No. 3, this is No. 2. Thanks for the explanation, though I think the correct acronymn is CWCAP.
Regarding crime statistics, I am a skeptic as to whether they indicate much of anything. Recently attended a budget hearing out of OC where a DA was pleading for more staff because the no. of arrests were up and thus there are more cases to prosecute. The reason he citied was the growth in the no. of police officers in the county, city by city and of course the Sheriff too. The point being he was telling us the crime statistics are up, there are thus more people to prosecute, not because of any societal trends but because the no. of people out there to make arrests has risen. Taking this argument to its logical end, one could argue that the way to lower the crime rate, statistically, is to reduce the no. of officers who are out there making arrests. I rest my case.
And, I would offer this advice regarding crime rates and other societal trends – don’t accept responsibiltiy for, or take credit for, something you do not control.
#4, In the Sheriff’s last two in-house police department mergers (Stanton and San Clement) all the cops became deputies.
No. 5 this is No.3. Statistics is the mother’s milk of efficiency, and effective government accountability, as long as they are not toyed with for political reasons.
The DA doesn’t need more money, carefully examine his budget and you’ll see he doesn’t know that to do with all the funding he has now. He’s engaged in classic empire building at the County’s expense, looking for ways to branch out from his core prosecutorial duties and is trying to build up his investigative branch to look for more criminals to prosecute. His comments in the budget hearings were transparent towards that end. The County needs to ask itself why the DA wants to subsidize the cities of Anaheim and Santa Ana with his newly created DNA project and to expand his DNA database. It’s both to his political advantage and desire to build his empire.
As far as the DA’s argument that crime is down but arrests are up because there are more cops making arrests, it is a know fact that an increase in the number of arrests will cause a decrease in crime rates not an increase. Criminals commit many crimes before they are finally arrested, these become crimes reported to the police and are recorded in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports. A robber or burglar many create 5 to 30 victims (crime stats) before they are caught. The Three Strikes Law has had an enormously positive impact on lowering crime by keeping those incorrigible repeat offenders off our streets.
Your comment about not taking credit for something you do not control is well taken. I would venture to speculate that society has a core group of criminals bent on following their evil ways and never make much of any positive contribution to our society. May God save their souls. The economy has an influence on those who live on the lower economic fringes of our society, and the lack of jobs and opportunity probably contributes to drawing some to crime because they lack adequate problem solving skills. As history has shown, it is the episodic natural economic adjustments over time that we cannot control.