Stationing Probation Officer at Simi Police Department Urged

Hoping to tighten his city’s lock on public safety, Councilman Paul Miller wants to bring county probation officers a little closer to the juvenile offenders they oversee.

Miller would like to see a probation officer or two working at the Simi Valley Police Department solely on police cases. And he thinks probation officers should accompany their police counterparts on regular patrols and gang sweeps in this, the nation’s safest city with a population of 100,000 or more.

What better way to discover whether youths are violating their probation terms than by bringing their probation officers to the gang members’ home turf, he reasons.

“We really are serious here about making sure gangs do not get a foothold,” he said. “We’re looking at a strong preventive effort. . . . By having a probation officer available to work with the police, they know who these kids are and what their probation conditions are. They can take direct action when a probation violation occurs.”

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Miller, a former Simi Valley police chief, pitched the idea at a Monday night City Council meeting, so details and finances have not been hammered out.

If a grant or funding from state or federal governments were not available for the program, the city might have to dig into its coffers, Miller added.

A full report on how such a partnership would work and what it would cost will be prepared by January, City Manager Mike Sedell said.

In Norwalk, where a similar strategy has been used since 1991, youth crime has dropped 87% since the program’s inception, according to Kevin Gano, that city’s director of public safety. The city pays $47,000 a year--or half the yearly salary--for the two probation officers dedicated to Norwalk. Los Angeles County pays the rest.

Already, police and probation officers work together closely in Simi Valley, officials in both agencies say.

Two probation officers who handle only the cases of Simi Valley juvenile delinquents work out of the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley, said Elizabeth Wirth, senior deputy probation officer. They meet with the Police Department’s gang officers once a week and accompany police on some patrols.

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But Lt. Dick Thomas, who heads the Simi Valley Police Department’s gang detail, said he welcomes looking at ways for the two agencies to keep even better tabs on the city’s few hundred gang members and associates.

“Do I endorse working closely with the Probation Department? Absolutely,” he said. “Could it have a possible impact on this community? Absolutely. . . . Anything where we get the collective power of the enforcers together to combat crime is a good thing.”

Miller’s proposal is a way to take the existing relationship to another level, Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams said.

“Having a probation officer who just works on Simi Valley Police Department cases would be unique,” he said.

“There is a significant difference in having someone assigned right in the station and working exclusively on our cases,” Adams said. “Instead of having a Ventura County probation officer, you’d almost have a Ventura County probation officer who is exclusive to Simi.”