Long Beach to Contract With Sheriff’s Deputies
The Long Beach City Council, faced with skyrocketing crime and an understaffed Police Department, voted Tuesday to hire Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to patrol parts of the city.
The plan to pair two law enforcement agencies in the same city is believed to be the first of its kind in California.
The council voted 5 to 2 to hire 46 sheriff’s deputies until 1994 to patrol the northeastern and northernmost areas of the city.
Most council members said the city needs to hire the deputies to free more Long Beach officers to patrol other parts of the city. The Police Officers Assn. opposed the plan, saying it will damage morale that is already low.
Representatives of the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People argued that the plan will circumvent a Citizen Police Complaint Commission, recently formed to review complaints of police brutality. Sheriff’s deputies, as county employees, would not be subject to local review.
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