Simi Considers a Fund-Raising Foundation for Its Police Force

Call it prudence or overkill, but Simi Valley officials want citizens to cough up more money to help the city’s Police Department make America’s third-safest city even safer.

Taxes are not enough, they say.

Residents should be encouraged to give money to the Simi Valley Police Department--tax-deductible donations that could buy everything from beat cops and furniture for the new police station to a year’s supply of dog chow for the canine squad.

So today, the City Council will consider founding a tax-exempt fund-raising corporation solely to funnel more money to the police.

Councilman Paul Miller--the city’s former police chief and author of the idea--admits that his old department is one of the best-funded in the county.

But his head is already swimming with new fund-raising schemes.

“Dances and concerts, chili cook-offs, car shows and pancake breakfasts--there’s all kinds of possibilities,” he said. “You can never let your guard down with regard to public safety.”

Miller says the money would help bridge a funding gap created two years ago, when a change in the law severely curtailed money the police were reaping from the drug assets-forfeiture program.

Simi Valley police took in probably $6 million over the years in cars, houses, boats and cash seized from suspected drug dealers. And it quickly turned the windfall into Drug Abuse Resistance Education officers, a $500,000 computer system and high-tech gear for countless undercover stings.

But with the program gutted by the state Legislature’s 1994 decision to let a strong assets-forfeiture law lapse, Simi Valley can always use extra help in buying new equipment during tight budget years, Miller said.

Simi residents--many of whom choose to live here because the city is so devoted to fighting crime--are likely to be generous.

“I think the people of this town will appreciate that we’re one of the safest cities in the nation,” Miller said. “And they’d be willing to chip in to keep it that way.”

Public fund-raising for police work is not a new idea. The Pasadena Police Foundation regularly holds charity golf tournaments to raise money for thickening that city’s thin blue line. And the 3-year-old Boston Police Foundation bankrolled a new fleet of police bikes.

The Los Angeles Police Department holds an annual golf tournament to fill the coffers of the LAPD Memorial Foundation, which helps support widows and orphans of deceased officers.

And a public-private Los Angeles coalition called the Mayor’s Alliance raised more than $16 million last year to buy a new computer network for the LAPD.

In Oxnard, the Police Officers’ Assn. raises money for the K-9 squad. And the Police Athletic League holds charity football games to benefit police-youth activities such as the Explorers program for would-be police cadets.

Police dog programs in the Santa Paula police and Ventura County sheriff’s departments also rely on fund-raising service groups to help them keep up with the costs of rabies shots and kibble.

Simi Valley’s own hungry K-9 squad already dines and trains on dollars raised by Rotary Club golf tournaments.

But Simi Valley, with an annual $13.4-million police budget, appears interested in supplementing its own funding with private help in a broader range of areas than most departments. That assistance could run the gamut from bolstering equipment and manpower to funding such extra touches as a large, mosaic badge for the entryway floor of the soon-to-be-built headquarters.

At first, the Simi Valley Police Foundation would include a City Council member, the police chief, the city manager, the chairman of the Planning Commission and a Neighborhood Council chairman.

But once it gains tax-exempt status from the IRS, the foundation would be expanded to include up to 11 members--and eventually would exclude the public officials and go private.

“We’d want people to know that the money wasn’t going into the general fund, and we’d basically keep it free of political manipulation,” Miller said. “Not that that would happen, but it makes it clean that way.”

The City Council is already set today to spend enough federal grant money to hire a new sergeant and four new special enforcement officers to combat street gangs. The council also is poised to agree to buy a fourth K-9 dog--complete with specially trained officer, caged police cruiser and leash--with money raised from private donors.

But Chief Randy Adams says he welcomes the promise of supplemental funds.

“The Police Department has received outstanding support, in my opinion, from the City Council,” Adams said. “I [know] that if I need something to properly run the department and if I can justify the need to the council, the council will find a way to make it happen for me.

“[But] there’s still a strong sentiment from those in the community to having a firsthand involvement in helping their Police Department protect the community,” Adams said. “And that makes the Police Department feel real good.”