$1.2 Million in State Grants Awarded to Long Beach Police

The Long Beach Police Department will receive more than $1.2 million in state grants that it plans to use for officer overtime and gang-prevention efforts, state and city officials announced Tuesday.

The Police Department, the second largest in the county, is to receive about $1 million from the Citizens Option for Public Safety, a state fund that is distributed to cities based on population.

While many cities have used their share to hire police officers, the Long Beach department, which has expanded rapidly for the last three years, plans to use it to cover overtime pay.

A second grant, a $250,000 award from the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning, is to be used to upgrade the department’s gang-tracking computer database and to support prevention programs such as the Police Athletic League, in which officers coach sports for children considered at risk of being lured into gangs.

Announcing the grants in a converted warehouse filled with punching bags and weights where athletic league volunteers train children in martial arts and other sports, Gov. Pete Wilson said “the toughest laws won’t make us any safer unless we give law enforcement the resources they need.”

In a meeting with city and state officials, police officers pressed for more help from Sacramento in dealing with juvenile crime. Assemblyman Phil Hawkins (R-Bellflower) said a bill he authored to overhaul the juvenile court system was killed in the state Senate.

Wilson was to meet with police in Bakersfield later in the day to discuss crime reduction.