2-Deputy Patrols Haven’t Improved Response Times

Despite assertions by sheriff’s officials that two-person patrol cars help reduce response times, records show that since the 1995 policy was implemented, there has been no significant change in the time it takes deputies to answer calls for help.

During the three years before the two-person policy was instituted, maximum response times for deputies in some of the most remote corners of Ventura County, including secluded pockets around Fillmore and Piru, averaged 14.56 minutes. For the last three years, the average response time remained exactly the same, sheriff’s records show.

Other areas were similarly static, dropping from 12.58 to 12.54 in the most eastern regions, and even reflected a slight increase from 9.77 to 10.06 for deputies covering Upper Ojai and the Lockwood Valley areas.

When the program began five years ago, sheriff’s officials said long response times were one reason the double-up policy was necessary. Deputies working in the county’s most rural reaches were too far from backup when emergencies arose, they said.

Now, Sheriff Bob Brooks, an ardent defender of the two-person patrol unit, said his department’s current statistics on response times are not an effective way to measure the value of two-person patrol cars.

“You just can’t prove these things statistically,” Brooks said. “If I go to a bar fight in Oak View, and there’s a guy back there with a knife, I’ve made contact. That’s a response. But I’m not going inside without backup. That’s what we have to consider.”

One critic, however, questioned the department’s reluctance to accept average response times as a measuring stick for the program. Andrew Gustafson, a former assistant county counsel for Ventura County, said the sheriff’s policy is an example of wasteful spending by a cash-rich department.

“Unless we can say this kind of huge increase in expenditures results in a huge benefit to the public, then it seems to be unjustified,” Gustafson said. “And one benefit should be improved response times. And on average, they have not improved. I’m a pro-law enforcement guy, but I’m opposed to a waste of public money. And this looks like a waste of public money.”

Brooks balks at charges of excessive spending, pointing to a $1.5-million cut in this year’s department budget.

The sheriff said he always has been open to reconsidering the two-person policy, noting that he asked department officials several months ago to review the $3.4-million-a-year program. The review, he said, was prompted in part by a need to assign more deputies to hunt down hundreds of local residents with outstanding warrants.

To determine if there is room for cuts in the double-up program, Brooks said a thorough analysis of response times is needed.

Some response times, for example, track the time that it takes a deputy to reach a scene but does not take into account the minutes a deputy waits in his patrol car for backup to arrive, he said. Department officials are compiling breakdowns to include that kind of information.

Those breakdowns are not yet complete and not available for review, said Eric Nishimoto, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department.

Officials also will consider what areas have heavier calls for service, and which are most violent, Brooks said.

Brooks’ review of the policy is the first in five years, authorities said.

In 1995, when authorities were considering the double-patrol units for afternoon and evening shifts, the main concern was reducing response times, said Vernon Cook, a former Sheriff’s Department manager in the crime analysis unit, who now teaches criminology part time at Cal State Northridge and Cal Lutheran.

“There was a concern that it was taking too long to respond to some of the unincorporated areas,” Cook said. “They always felt that area was under-patrolled and the main goal was to reduce those response times. And the feeling was, if we had the money, why not?”

Cmdr. Geoff Dean, who oversees the department’s patrol services, said that even today it can take up to 45 minutes to respond to some areas, such as the Upper Ojai Valley, Point Mugu and southeastern Ventura County.

Brooks said that unpaved roads and blackout areas where radio transmissions are difficult also have an effect on responses in some areas.

Cook said that five months after the double-up program began, his own analysis for the department found no changes in response times. He said part of the reason was that two patrol cars were showing up to many of the calls anyway, sometimes out of need, sometimes out of habit.

“The patrol behavior remained the same,” Cook said. “Not only did two deputies show up [in one car], but they would then wait for the other two to show up in another car.”

Though the current review is incomplete, Brooks said he does expect to make some adjustment to the two-man deployments. He said he will probably reduce the number of double patrols during the slowest periods--between 2 and 6 a.m.

But any change in the two-deputy deployment in the afternoon and evening shifts will be slight, he added.

“We still believe it is a valid policy,” Brooks said. “If we change it, it will be a very modest change.”