Williams Calls for Streamlining of Jail System : Law enforcement: Police chief proposes closing four facilities to free more officers for street duty. Critics say it could increase response time.

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams has proposed closing four police jails--two of them at San Fernando Valley police stations--as a way of improving the jail system and putting more officers on the streets.

Some critics have told department officials that the plan could increase the time it takes police to respond to calls for help because they would have to travel farther to drop off suspects for bookings.

But police officials said the move, if approved by the Police Commission and City Council, would result in better protection overall for the community because it would free more officers for street duty.

The proposal was prompted by Williams’ concerns that there was no uniform way of operating the jails, which has made it necessary for many patrol officers to fill in at positions usually filled by non-sworn but specially trained jailers.

Under current policy, the captains overseeing most of the Police Department’s 18 divisions manage the jails in their own stations, but officials Downtown oversee the much larger jail at Parker Center headquarters and another large lockup at the department’s Van Nuys-based Valley headquarters. All the facilities are used to house arrestees while they are awaiting arraignment.

“The fractured management . . . promotes inconsistency and leaves the door open to unfavorable civil judgments,” Williams said in a report received May 3 by the Police Commission. “The extensive amount of patrol officers and uniformed sergeants to supplement and supervise custody functions in area jails is also unacceptable.”

In the Jail Consolidation Plan proposed by the chief, the department would close the North Hollywood, Reseda, West Los Angeles and 77th Street police lockups, the last of which is slated to close anyway as part of a plan to build a new station. The timeworn North Hollywood station will make way for a new station without jail facilities, police said.

If the plan is approved by the Police Commission at its May 17 meeting, officers from the North Hollywood and West Valley divisions would have to transport prisoners to the Van Nuys Division jail, a move that would require more commuting time.

But Williams said he supports the proposal because of the uniformity of running the jails under a central command--the LAPD’s Jail Division--and because of the money saved under the measure. The chief said the closures would result in a net decrease of 18 employees assigned to the jails, saving $195,756 next year.

The department also would save $1 million by not having to build a jail along with the new North Hollywood station, police officials said.

Assistant Chief Frank Piersol, whose staff prepared the report, said the issues of staffing and response time will be among those studied when the plan goes before the Police Commission in the coming weeks.

The department also is studying whether some uniformed officers able to perform only light field duty because of injury or disability may be used to help ferry arrestees to lockups and process the paperwork.

“There is some resistance in the department to this proposal,” said Capt. Michael Melton, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Jail Division. But he said the advantages outweigh any potential disadvantages.

“There is no question about it. If an officer in West Valley has to drive to Van Nuys to book arrestees, there will be some additional time lost to travel,” he said. “But you are saving some patrol time by not having to assign them to the jails. And it improves consistency because these officers are not trained as jailers.

“The purpose of closing jails,” he added, “is not to save money, but to better manage the jail operation.”

Under the proposal, each police station jail would not only have entry-level jailer positions but highly trained supervisors as well. When a jailer was out sick or their position was vacant, Melton said, he would send someone from one of the two larger lockup facilities instead of relying on uniformed officers.

This would ensure that those handling arrestees are trained to do so, instead of the current haphazard system, Melton said. “You can see how that would create some problems in continuity, consistency and training,” he said. “It makes sense that the command be the same.”

Deputy Chief Martin H. Pomeroy, who commands all Valley police divisions, said the move was prompted in part by budgetary constraints. But he said the travel time for officers taking arrestees to be booked would be only a few minutes at most, compared with the time-consuming task of actually booking them at the station.

He said that the new North Hollywood station will be closer to the Van Nuys jail, making it less important to have a jail facility in the North Hollywood station.