O.C.’s Force of Technology: Less Crime With Fewer Cops

Orange County cities have half the number of police officers per capita than the national average yet still recorded some of the biggest declines in crime over the last decade, statistics show.

Despite President Clinton’s highly publicized program to add 100,000 new officers to the streets, the number of sworn personnel in Orange County has remained basically steady since 1990, with many local departments spending federal money instead on computers, state-of-the-art equipment and sophisticated software.

The county has 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents, compared with a national average of 2.4 and a state average of 2.3, according to a Times analysis of state records. The Los Angeles Police Department, long considered one of the nation’s most understaffed agencies, has hired more than 1,000 officers in recent years and now has a ratio of 2.4.

Orange County’s figures highlight what experts say is a shift in the way some police departments operate, relying much more on technology and lower-paid civilian employees to handle time-consuming tasks that officers once performed.

Officials and law enforcement researchers said the numbers also show that a heavy police presence on the street is not always the most effective approach to fighting crime.

“If you doubled the number of cops, I’m willing to bet you it wouldn’t influence the crime rates,” said Gregory Russell, a police management expert from Washington State University. “The assumption, that if you put more cops on street crime, rates will go down, is wrong.”

Consider the Westminster Police Department.

The agency saw a slight decline in the number of officers per capita between 1990 and 1999. But the city invested in crime mapping software, fingerprint scanners and other equipment. It even created its own computerized statistics unit with an in-house academic who helps officers quickly detect crime patterns.

Capt. Andrew Hall says these expenditures proved much more effective than hiring more officers, and he points with pride to a 45% drop in reported crimes since 1990.

“Rather than just throwing people at problems, we are thinking through the root causes,” said Hall. “Just the general premise that more cops lead to less crime is incorrect. . . . I think there’s a limit to how you can use the officers effectively.”

Officer Ranks Have Declined Slightly

Orange County now has 2,680 sworn police officers, an increase of 107 from 1990. But when adjusted for population growth, the number of officers per 1,000 residents declined slightly during this period from 1.33 to 1.22. Nationally, the ratio rose slightly.

The Orange County survey doesn’t include sheriff’s deputies, who perform non-patrol functions such as jail security, inmate transportation and harbor patrol. They also serve as the police force in some communities, including many in the South County.

The numbers have prompted researchers from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank, to begin their own examination of Orange County’s staffing levels.

“It’s [a] great untold story of crime reduction,” said Eli Lehrer, a Heritage fellow who plans to visit local police departments this summer. “They’re not only getting crime down, but they’re more efficient.”

Lehrer said he is most impressed by police in several larger Orange County communities, such as Anaheim, Santa Ana and Garden Grove. Garden Grove has fewer than one officer per 1,000 residents, with Anaheim, Santa Ana and Irvine following with somewhat higher ratios.

All four communities have seen significant drops in crime and have been ranked by the FBI as among the safest large cities in the nation.

The analysis of police data found that Newport Beach, Los Alamitos and Laguna Beach have the most officers per 1,000 residents. But, for the most part, they recorded no greater drops in crime than neighboring cities.

“You can continue to put more and more officers on the street, but how effective is it in the big picture?” said Laguna Beach Capt. Danelle Adams, whose department has twice the officers per capita of Garden Grove. “We’ll always push for more cops . . . but you have to walk a delicate balance between the technology and the bodies.”

Adams says Laguna Beach’s 56% crime drop over the decade is due less to extra officers than innovative community policing techniques and such new technology as an automated report dictation system. The machine saves the equivalent of eight hours of police time a day.

Staffing is a hot topic in police departments across the nation, and experts say there is no “magic number” for a given agency. The debate has intensified over the last seven years as the federal government allocated more than $5 billion in grants to police departments.

A U.S. Justice Department audit completed last year found that despite the big federal expenditure, only about half of the 100,000 new police officers President Clinton promised have been hired. The report predicted that 72,000 new officers would be on the streets by the end of this year.

Funds Can Bring More Officers--or Resources

Some of the new technology and other policing advances now used by Orange County agencies came from the millions of dollars received from the federal government.

By contrast, big cities such as Los Angeles and New York have focused considerably on hiring new officers, and police leaders there say the heavier presence is a reason for the decline in crime.

Los Angeles has been especially aggressive. The number of sworn officers has jumped from fewer than 8,000 in 1993 to 9,263 now. The department has proposed hiring hundreds more this year, though finding qualified candidates has been a challenge.

Police officials said more hiring was sorely needed in a city with vast boundaries and serious gang problems. They said having more officers on the streets is in itself a deterrent to crime.

“Our motto is to protect and serve, and our mission is to keep the streets safe. So if your population is growing, you have to keep step,” said LAPD spokesman Sgt. John Pasquariello. “We need more officers to implement community policing. It’s more labor-intensive. We need more officers to interact with residents, to attend community meetings.”

Even with staffing increases, the department’s 2.4 officers per 1,000 residents is still below the average for cities with more than 250,000 residents, which is 3.2 officers.

Giving Some Duties to Civilians--With Caveat

Many Orange County agencies have tried to free up officers by hiring civilians to handle functions from administrative duties to taking some crime reports.

Dennis Zine, vice president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said this practice can be helpful but warns that the trend can go too far.

“You need someone who is fully committed to the task of public safety, chasing down robbers,” he said. “You’re always going to have your criminals who are preying on society, and you need trained professional law enforcement, just like we have a paid military.”

Other veteran cops question Zine’s logic, saying it’s a balancing act to find the right number of officers to patrol the streets without sending the wrong message.

“You want people to feel safe . . . but not intimidated,” said Westminster Det. Tom Rackleff, who first patrolled the street in 1974 when the city was still dotted with strawberry fields.

Rackleff said he spends much more time investigating cases now than in the old days, when making a phone call meant going to the old blue police call boxes on some street corners.

“We [used to] easily spend 60 to 70% of our time writing reports,” he said. “Today, we have laptops in the cars, and we’re becoming a paperless department.”

Other officials credit more involvement by the public in Neighborhood Watch, volunteer programs and other activities.

In Costa Mesa, where crime has dropped 63% over the last decade, Police Chief David L. Snowden said the growth of these community-involvement programs has made a big difference.

“Today, the community is all over the place. Our citizens are concerned,” he said. “That volunteerism means we have more time to fight crime.”

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Times staff writer Ray F. Herndon contributed to this report.

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The Cop Count

Orange County police departments have half the officers per capita compared to the national average. Most agencies have seen a slight decline in their rations over the last decade. Here is the breakdown by city: