Council OKs Funds for Sheriff’s Facility

With the City Council’s decision to allocate $60,000 to improve the sheriff’s substation, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has decided to move its crime suppression unit to Camarillo next year.

Sheriff Bob Brooks had been looking for a more central permanent location for the unit, which was based in Ventura.

The five-member Camarillo City Council voted unanimously last week to fund the needed improvements to the substation, which will add law enforcement officers to Camarillo without additional personnel costs. The funds will be used to convert a storage area and part of an evidence locker at the substation for the crime suppression unit.

The unit was created by the Sheriff’s Department in 1995 as a way to share in Proposition 172 sales tax money earmarked for public safety agencies. Deputies in the unit are assigned to assist other law enforcement agencies in probation sweeps and help solve neighborhood crimes.

Camarillo contracts with the county for its police services.

The city and the Sheriff’s Department have agreed to split the costs of construction, tobegin in February, while the county will provide furniture and communications equipment for the unit.