Countywide : Liaison Program Cuts Officers’ Court Time

Three cities are benefiting from a program that allows police officers to spend fewer hours off their beats as they wait to testify in court, officials said.

“Our court liaison program also saves taxpayer dollars,” Cypress Police Lt. Jim Weuve said.

Weuve, who coordinates the program, explained it after the Cypress City Council unanimously approved its renewal. The council, at its May 22 meeting, authorized another year of shared court liaison with Los Alamitos and Seal Beach.

The liaison program involves two civilian employees working with the courts and the district attorney’s office. The two civilians--one part-time, one full-time--track cases that stem from police arrests in the three cities. Doing so saves uniformed officers many hours each year, Weuve said.

“Police officers get summoned to be in court for a case, and often they have to spend all day waiting to testify,” Weuve said. “Our court liaison people have arrangements with the courts so that they will be notified when an officer is needed to testify, and they can get that officer there in a half-hour or 45 minutes.”

Weuve said the court liaison workers also follow the “paper trail” generated between arrest and trial. He said that makes for efficient law enforcement and saves additional time and money.

Cypress generates enough court cases to justify more than one person working as a court liaison, Weuve said. By contrast, he said, the smaller neighboring cities of Seal Beach and Los Alamitos do not generate enough cases to hire a full-time person.

Since 1992, Cypress has thus shared its court liaison program, on a contract basis, with Seal Beach and Los Alamitos. Those cities pay Cypress proportionally based on the number of cases involved.

During the current fiscal year, Cypress had 59% of the cases generated in the three cities, while Seal Beach had 21% and Los Alamitos 16%.