OXNARD : City Urged to Add 30 Police Officers

The Oxnard Police Department should hire 30 police officers and purchase cellular phones and computers for its patrol cars to improve efficiency and reduce burnout, a city management analysis has concluded.

But the measures, which would reduce response time by decreasing current workloads, would cost the financially strapped city $3.1 million to implement, the analysts determined.

Because no funding exists to hire new staff, the report should be viewed as a planning tool rather than as a guide for implementation, said Thomas Frutchey, an assistant city manager.

The report, to be reviewed today by the Oxnard City Council, was the third major review of the Police Department in two years, and was intended to resolve differences between two previous reports. Conducted by analysts from three city departments, the new report rejects the 1990 proposal by Cresap, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm, that Oxnard should trim 30 positions from its police force for $1 million in savings.

The report’s findings supported the conclusions of a more detailed study completed last year by Carroll Buracker & Associates, which recommended that the city add 37 employees to the Police Department. No estimate was provided for the cost of the hiring plan.

The authors of the new report concluded that low staffing levels have contributed to employee burnout in some areas of the department, resulting in a high attrition rate and disability claims.

As a result, the city has experienced a higher crime rate and greater police response time, the analysts noted.

To improve efficiency, the authors recommended the city double the city’s patrol areas to 14, reduce the service calls for each officer 24% and reduce the caseload of detectives 36%.