Santa Fe Springs Vote Considered Vital to Sheriff’s Helicopter Patrol

Tonight’s vote of the Santa Fe Springs City Council will determine the fate of an increasingly expensive Sheriff’s Department helicopter program that serves four Southeast cities.

The airborne patrol program won cautious approval earlier this week from La Mirada and Pico Rivera officials, who called it a valuable law enforcement tool.

But if the Santa Fe Springs council rejects a proposed five-year contract for the service, it could mean the demise of the 19-year-old Air Reconnaissance Ground Unit Support (ARGUS) program.

Officials say a more likely outcome is that council members will approve a limited six-month or one-year contract, with the understanding that the Sheriff’s Department will look into cutting expenses.

“We’re going to look at revamping aerial patrol . . . so it becomes more palatable and less costly,” said Capt. Robert Pash of the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station.

The ARGUS program is paid for by the Southeast cities of Norwalk, La Mirada, Pico Rivera and Santa Fe Springs, the San Gabriel Valley city of South El Monte and Los Angeles County.

It will cost $833,000 to operate the one-helicopter program in fiscal 1988-89, a 10% increase from last year.

Santa Fe Springs will be the final city to consider extending the contract. Pico Rivera and La Mirada threatened to back out of the program unless all cities approved it because the remaining cities would have to pick up the financial slack.

“If one city pulls out, the entire program is in jeopardy,” Pash said.

Each city and the county pays a different amount for ARGUS service, depending on the square miles covered and the rate of major felonies reported in the area, said Lt. John Phillips of the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station.

Major felonies include murder, assault, robbery and rape, he explained.

As in years past, the county will pay the largest share--$386,400--of program costs because it has the most land to cover, 36-square-miles in the Whittier area. Norwalk will pay $138,400, Santa Fe Springs $87,800, Pico Rivera $99,900, La Mirada $75,200, and South El Monte $45,200.

The cost of the ARGUS program has increased 14% in the last five years, principally due to salary increases for sheriff’s deputies, Phillips said.

To bring down the price tag for member cities, Pash said the Sheriff’s Department may try to recruit more cities for the cooperative.

Dennis Courtemarche, city manager of Pico Rivera, said the cost of the program has increased at a higher rate than his city’s budget.

“At some point, you’ve got to question whether the amount of (patrol) time you get is worth the amount of money that you spend,” Courtemarche said.

Pico Rivera’s $99,900 share is equal to the amount the city spends on anti-cruising law enforcement each year, Courtemarche added.

Phillips said it is misleading for cities to measure the effectiveness of the program in terms of patrol time, because the helicopter is most useful in emergency situations.

On burglary calls, the ARGUS helicopter can track a suspect and report to officers on the ground. “Particularly in industrial areas, it’s hard for ground units to get into a complex,” Phillips said.

ARGUS was also valuable during disasters such as the 1986 Cerritos airline crash. “Just by getting up (in the air) you can survey the situation a lot better than you ever could by ground,” Phillips said.

The ARGUS helicopter is based at Long Beach Airport and starts flying about 6 nightly. The helicopter is on duty until about 2 a.m., patrolling a regular route and responding to emergency calls as needed.

The only other Southeast city to use helicopter surveillance is Lakewood, which runs its own Skynight program.

With the expiration of the five-year ARGUS contract, Courtemarche predicted city officials throughout the area will be reconsidering the cost and usefulness of helicopter surveillance.

“If nothing else,” Courtemarche said, “what’s going to come out of this is a little closer look at how the Sheriff’s Department handles this program.”