ANAHEIM : Police-Hiring Plan on Council Agenda

A proposal to use more than $1 million in hotel and motel taxes to hire new police officers will be considered by the City Council tonight.

A unanimous council last week ordered City Manager James D. Ruth and Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy to devise a plan for hiring more police officers.

Mayor Fred Hunter, a former Anaheim detective, said then he would like to see 10 officers hired and used on patrol.

The department currently has 340 sworn officers.

Molloy would not discuss details of the plan Monday, except to say that “it is a comprehensive plan that will take into account the city’s future. Just putting 10 officers on the street takes no imagination, as far as I’m concerned.”

Last week’s council vote came after a Times Orange County poll of 600 Anaheim residents showed that 90% view crime and gangs as a significant problem in the city.

Fifty-one gangs with 700 members are based in Anaheim, according to police statistics.

The city has an 11.6% tax on hotel and motel rooms, which nets more than $10 million a year.

The tax, which will increase to 13% in December, 1993, is used to support the Anaheim Convention Center and the tourism and convention industry in general.

A year ago, city voters rejected by a margin of almost 2 to 1 an advisory proposal that would have increased taxes by $60 a year per household to pay for 40 new police officers.

The council meeting will begin at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.