$1.1 Million Voted to Add Police Officers in Anaheim : Crime: Money is diverted from the city’s recently increased hotel tax. A growing gang problem is the target.

In a bid to keep pace with increased gang crime and mammoth new residential developments, the City Council on Tuesday approved a $1.1-million plan that will place at least 10 more police officers on city streets.

The plan, devised by City Manager James Ruth and Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy, diverts money from the city’s recently increased hotel tax to pay for 13 new employees.

“This is the best expenditure of any new money,” Molloy said. “It represents a broader approach that allows us to start building a plan that is proactive rather than reactive.”

The plan targets the city’s growing gang problem and creates a new team of four officers, headed by a sergeant, to work investigations of gang-related crimes. This so-called community action policing team, Anaheim’s second, will work “specific problem areas,” Molloy said.

Molloy said five investigators now in largely clerical positions will be reassigned to major crime details.

Under the plan, the city’s gang detail will get two more investigators and a probation officer hired from the county to help in the prosecution of gang members.

“This approach will start to close the gap for us,” Molloy said. “It give us more flexibility. And it represents one more step in meeting Anaheim’s increased demand for police services.”

Last week, a unanimous council, citing the Police Department’s inability to keep up with city growth, had asked the city manager and police chief to make immediate provisions to increase police staffing.

The council’s decision followed a Times Orange County Poll of 600 Anaheim residents which found that 90% view crime and gangs as a significant problem.

According to police, gang presence in the city has increased about sevenfold in the past decade and includes about 51 gangs with 700 members.

Funding for the new team comes from the city’s tax on hotel rooms. The 11.6% tax rate nets about $10 million yearly for the city and will increase to 13% in December, 1993. The tax increase was approved late last year to support an Anaheim Convention Center expansion.

Police officials have said the department has not significantly increased its 340-officer force in the past decade.

Besides the addition of new officers, the department is scheduled later this week to introduce a new plan that will place officers on 12-hour work shifts, three days each week. Molloy and Ruth said the shifts are a further bid to keep more police on duty during peak times.

Councilman Bob D. Simpson has said a lack of officers and the rising gang problem has been “creeping up” on the city for years and is probably the “most talked-about thing among the council members.”