S. County Needs 54 Deputies, Report Says

Because no additional Orange County sheriff’s deputies have been added to patrol the unincorporated South County over the past four years--despite an 18% annual population increase--the department needs at least 54 additional deputies to provide proper law enforcement, a county report declared Monday.

Prepared by county administrative office senior analyst Fausto Reyes and Sheriff’s Lt. George Johnson, the report predicts that by the middle of next year deputies in the burgeoning South County will receive 67,472 calls for assistance--more than double the number of requests made five years ago.

Since a single patrol deputy is capable of handling 1,205 calls annually, the report stated, the estimated “67,472 calls for service will require an additional 54 deputies dispersed over three shifts per day, seven days a week. . . .”

Hiring the additional deputies could cost $3.6 million a year, the report said, although a cheaper option might be to hire eight unsworn officers and 20 sworn deputies for an annual cost of $1.2 million.

“There is no question that there is a need to improve the number of officers,” said Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who requested the report because his 3rd District covers much of the area. Vasquez, a former police officer from the city of Orange, said that although 54 new deputies might be needed now, the county is faced with fiscal limitations.

Currently, the department has 122 deputies in South County operating from the South Patrol Bureau, a temporary facility next to the county courthouse in Laguna Niguel. Each year the number of calls to the substation has increased by about 4,000, the report said.

Although the report was on the supervisors’ agenda for their weekly meeting today, no action on its recommendations is expected until after the midyear budget review in January, officials said.

At that time, the supervisors might also consider whether the Sheriff’s Department should add community services officers to help with some of the duties in South County. Community service officers do not make arrests but generally act as desk officers, taking criminal or accident reports. The new study said salaries for the “non-sworn” officers are considerably less while they can free sworn deputies to spend more time in patrolling and answering calls.

Vasquez said the Sheriff’s Department needs more deputies to increase its preventive patrols.

South County is by far the largest unincorporated area patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department. Although no patrol officers have been added over the past five years, new deputies have been hired by the sheriff to work in the county jails.

The report said the additional deputies should serve in the areas of El Toro, Lake Forest, Aegean Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, Coto de Caza, Robinson Ranch, Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel and canyon country.