Long Beach Detectives Will Work 6-Day Weeks : Law enforcement: The department orders overtime to try to clear a big backlog of unsolved crimes. The officers’ union endorses the move.

The Long Beach Police Department, rocked by reports that it had the highest percentage of unsolved violent crimes of any major city in California last year, has ordered more than 150 detectives to work six-day weeks in an attempt to clear hundreds of backlogged cases.

The mandatory overtime, which will begin this weekend and continue indefinitely, was ordered by Deputy Chief Robert Luman and applauded by the police union “for the good of the city,” which is in the grip of a record crime wave.

“We are going to work our people overtime to get the people of Long Beach the kind of service they deserve,” said Luman, who commands the bureau’s 157 detectives. “What we have to look out for is the best interest of the community and the department.”

The order comes in the wake of state crime figures that showed Long Beach police failed to solve 74% of reported rapes, 87% of robberies and 93% of burglaries in 1989. For serious crimes combined, police solved 14%--the least of any large city surveyed, according to the figures provided by the California Department of Justice.

Detectives complained that rape cases sit as long as six months without attention and solvable burglaries are backed up as far as January.

Every detective, from auto theft to homicide, has been put on notice that weekend work will be required beginning Saturday. The backlog of crimes is still being assessed, and Luman could not say Wednesday how many detectives would be on the street this weekend.

The overtime will be paid with money set aside for 44 vacancies from resignations and transfers. Officials said the department has the most vacancies it has had in 10 years, but new recruits are expected to be in place by the end of the year.

Police Chief Lawrence Binkley has said understaffing and 15 years of neglect is at the root of the department’s poor performance. By year’s end, he said, Long Beach homicide detectives will carry a caseload twice as heavy as their counterparts in Los Angeles, where there are 2.6 officers per 1,000 citizens, compared with 1.7 per 1,000 in Long Beach.

Several officers said the manpower problem is inflamed by low morale and a bitter, three-year labor war between the chief and his ranks.

In a rare moment of harmony, however, the police union representing about 90% of 650 sworn officers on Wednesday endorsed the overtime mandate as long overdue.

“Anything we can do to provide a higher level of service to the community is good,” union President Mike Tracy said. “We’ve been yelling for this for quite some time.”

While Luman declined to predict how long the overtime would continue, Tracy said it could take more than a year for the detective bureau to catch up.

Already, there were concerns about how long the officers could hold up under such a rigid schedule.

“You get worn down,” said Robin Klein, a police union psychologist. “Your senses aren’t as acute and you run the risk of making poor decisions. . . . Ultimately, everyone is going to be affected by this.”

“I know for a fact that it’s illegal,” one detective said. “The Police Department can order overtime in case of an emergency--just because they didn’t have enough foresight to hire enough detectives isn’t an emergency. That’s a management problem.”

BACKGROUND The Long Beach Police Department, recognized in 1975 by the RAND Corp. for its efficiency, has been plagued in recent years by lack of funds, labor strife and a scandal over the use of force against black activist Don Jackson. Allegations of racism and police brutality led to a disciplinary crackdown by the chief last year and pushed morale to new depths within the fifth-largest police department in the state. Meanwhile, state figures show violent crime is rising faster in Long Beach than anywhere else in California, at a time when its 84-year-old Police Department seems least equipped to handle it.