PLACENTIA

City Council members Maria Moreno and Norman Z. Eckenrode are seeking $20,000 from the city to spend on community policing, similar to the federally funded Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS) that exists in bigger communities. For more than a year, Moreno and Eckenrode have been pushing to have police officers on bicycle patrol and walking the beat; they believe the department is disconnected from the community, Moreno said.

But Mayor Constance Underhill said Moreno and Eckenrode have yet to present the council with a thorough report outlining how the $20,000 would be spent.

Eckenrode said that’s not the case. “We’ve already submitted our ideas to the council verbally last year,” he said. “I don’t know how many study sessions we used to discuss this issue.”