SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Statistics Are Murderous

With a record homicide rate in both the city and the county of San Diego this year, the announcements that the downtown redevelopment agency plans to help build a courthouse and that the city intends to divert more than $1 million from other programs to fight crime were most welcome.

The courthouse will relieve some pressure on the main courthouse. But the central courthouse is dilapidated and crowded and needs to be replaced.

The $1 million in city funds will be used for overtime to put up to 60 more officers on the street in high-crime areas. The additional police presence may briefly interrupt the escalating inner-city violence, but how much of a difference can more police officers make without jail space for those they arrest?

The city acknowledges the problem--in fact it is in the process of building its own jail--but hopes the added police officers will serve at least as some deterrent.

The needs for a new courthouse and significantly more jail beds--and the people to staff them--are unlikely to be addressed until the state Supreme Court decides the legality of the half-cent sales tax passed by a slim majority of voters in 1988.

While that challenge has been in the court system, more than $300 million in sales taxes and interest has built up in a special account. And a new jail sits empty because of inadequate resources to staff it.

To its credit, the county has found a way to open part of East Mesa, starting today, by using limited resources more efficiently. But the musical prisoner game will add just 72 beds to the overall system.

Local law enforcement officials agree that jail space is the most critical need. So we were glad to hear that the city is going to try to get Gov. Pete Wilson to push the state Supreme Court for a quick decision on the sales tax measure.

But if jail space is at the top of law enforcement’s priority list, might the city’s $1 million be better used to help the county open more beds at East Mesa? Granted, it would be unorthodox. But these are times that call for unorthodox approaches.