Crime Falls, but Audit Raps Police

As Santa Paula touted its lowest crime rate in decades this week, a law enforcement audit found the Police Department in the small farming city to be inefficient, outdated and underfunded -- though well-regarded by residents.

The city’s reported crime fell 33% in 2003 to levels not seen since the 1970s, as both violent and property offenses decreased sharply. Santa Paula’s crime rate has dropped by two-thirds since 1993.

“Our mission is to reduce crime, and we’re doing a damned good job of it,” said Police Chief Bob Gonzales. “Our guys are working their rear ends off, and the result is very clear in these year-end statistics.”

But City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz said a new 70-page audit provides an unblinking appraisal of the department’s pluses and minuses.

“We asked for a very straightforward, unvarnished assessment,” he said. “There are good things about the hard work of the Police Department and the community’s feelings for it. But it also points to things we need to do as a framework for the future.”

Struggling to revive an aging downtown, and to make ends meet at City Hall, Santa Paula officials have questioned for years whether the blue-collar city -- one of Ventura County’s poorest -- can still afford an independent police department.

Bobkiewicz, backer of several reforms since taking charge last year, said he will recommend that the City Council authorize a study of whether Santa Paula should hire the county Sheriff’s Department for police services.

Side by side, that study and the new audit would provide an apples-to-apples comparison of what Santa Paula could get for its law enforcement dollar, both from the sheriff and from the existing 31-officer department, he said. Then the council would decide whether to ask residents to pay for it.

“If we go to the voters with a parcel or utility tax, we need to have all the answers,” Bobkiewicz said.

Gonzales said a similar study eight years ago found the sheriff would charge $600,000 more a year than the existing Police Department budget for similar services. The Police Department’s budget is now $3.9 million annually. The audit recommended a $2.3-million increase, but also noted that policing costs in cities protected by the Sheriff’s Department are as low as or lower than those in Santa Paula.

The audit found that in seven benchmark cities, average police spending per resident was $219, while in Santa Paula the figure was only $146. But in upscale Moorpark, a sheriff’s contract city, the spending was only $120 per resident.

“The city of Santa Paula cannot continue to maintain a separate municipal police agency at the current level of funding,” the audit by Pasadena-based Arroyo Associates concluded. “The city must either find the means by which it can increase funding ... or investigate contracting for service with the Ventura County Sheriff or other police agency.”

The audit faulted Santa Paula not only for its tight police budget, but for management of the department.

“Given its limited resources, the Santa Paula Police Department does a good job providing the community with basic policing services,” the study found. “However, an inefficient use of the Department’s already inadequate resources impairs [its] efforts to deliver truly effective police services.”

Specific problems include a faulty department structure, a vague statement of the department’s mission, and a sense that Gonzales plays favorites with promotions, special assignments and training, the report found.

“A significant number of the Department’s business practices are outmoded, inefficient and counterproductive,” it said.

The audit also found that the Police Department had significant strengths, including strong community support, solid response times, and residents’ perception that the city is becoming safer.

Out of 300 residents surveyed, 85% rated the Police Department as good or very good, 95% said they felt safe or very safe walking alone during daytime near their homes, 61% said they felt safe at night near home, and 79% said they had a great deal of respect for the department and its officers.

The department’s harshest criticism came from its own employees, who complained that their mission was not clear, that the department had too few officers and that they were grossly underpaid.

On a salary survey of 10 California police departments, Santa Paula ranked ahead of only Calexico, with a monthly salary range for a police officer of $3,048 to $3,706. That compares, for example, with $3,988 to $5,184 in Port Hueneme, a city of similar size.

Bobkiewicz said the council needs to consider the cost of making salaries more competitive.

“In the audit, a fair number of things deal with management,” the city manager said. “I think Chief Gonzales entered the process skeptically. But I have every confidence he’ll take this audit and implement its recommendations.”

Gonzales said he thinks the audit shows there are a lot of things that he can work on. But he said his department’s essential problem is too little money.

“Yes, we need seven more officers, but where am I going to get the money for that? ... We’re torn in so many directions, so it’s a strain.”

But Bobkiewicz echoed the audit when he asked if the time might have come for Santa Paula’s beloved police to become more disciplined in responding to calls for help.

“If a parent calls because Johnny won’t get out of bed to go to school, this department has historically sent an officer out from time to time,” Bobkiewicz said.

Gonzales said the true test of his department is how it has held crime in check in recent years. The city’s crime rate of nearly 62 offenses per 1,000 residents in 1993 plummeted to about 20 crimes per 1,000 last year. Between 2002 and 2003, crime was down in seven of eight categories considered by the FBI in its annual crime report. In the eighth category, rapes, the number remained at four.

But homicides were down from six to two, robberies fell from 33 to 28, and felony assaults from 55 to 50, as violent crime dropped 12%.

Meanwhile, reports of property crime fell 35%, as home and business burglaries dropped from 207 to 112 in one year.

“The guys are being very proactive,” Gonzales said. “We lost three guys, and brought in three young people: That’s been a big shot in the arm.”

The department has also adopted new strategies that helped staunch gang violence, closed troublesome bars and restored a downtown foot patrol, he said.

“We’re being more aggressive in the field, and we’re seeing the results,” he said.

*(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Declining crime

Santa Paula offenses are down from a peak of 61.8 per 1,000 residents 11 years ago to 20.3 in 2003.

*--* Felony Total Year Homicide Rape Robbery assault Burglary Theft Auto Arson crimes theft 1993 2 10 62 149 517 745 103 5 1,593

1999 1 9 41 115 295 329 77 12 879

2000 3 2 37 63 281 310 53 8 757

2001 0 1 56 68 292 352 70 14 852

2002 6 4 33 55 298 429 74 8 907

2003 2 4 28 50 *112 346 59 7 608

*--*

*Due to a clerical change, auto burglaries are listed for the first time in theft category.

Source: Santa Paula Police Department

Los Angeles Times