Police Stations No Safe Haven, Panel Reports

A majority of area police and sheriff stations are inaccessible to residents after business hours and do not have armed officers on site at all times, according to a Ventura County Grand Jury report released this week.

The panel studied the issue after hearing about a woman being followed by someone who was trying to force her off the road as she drove home from work early in the morning.

“She headed for the local police station for help, and upon arrival she found a poorly lighted building with no clearly marked entrance and no sign of any police personnel,” the panel wrote, calling it a “terrifying experience.”

The grand jury report did not name the police station but said the woman eventually located an officer on patrol in the community.

Grand jurors visited 10 police and sheriff stations during off hours to judge safety conditions.

The panel found that stations in Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai, Santa Paula and Ventura lock their public lobbies by about 6 p.m. each night. The stations are not staffed with armed officers during nonbusiness hours, though other officers are on patrol in the communities.

“All law enforcement agencies should provide a safe haven 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” the panel wrote.

The report noted that all six stations have phones outside that can be used to dial a dispatcher.

Some law enforcement leaders believe the report is misleading because four of the six stations with locked lobbies--Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark and Ojai--are in small cities that contract for police services with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

“It is very rare that someone races to one of those stations with an emergency [after business hours],” Undersheriff Craig Husband said. “Most people go to the nearest public area or call us on a cell phone.”

Husband said it would cost each of the contract cities about $400,000 annually to hire additional officers to staff their stations around the clock and that such an expense is unnecessary.

“It’s more effective to keep our resources on the street,” he said. “We get most of our contacts with people by driving around.”

Officials at Santa Paula and Ventura police departments have said limited funding and a lack of need prompted them to lock their lobbies at night.

In Ventura, police officials scaled back lobby hours a couple of years ago and reassigned civilian police services officers--who had been used to staff a front desk--to area storefronts.

“It’s really an effort to use our resources as effectively as we can,” said Ventura Police Chief Mike Tracy.

In addition to fewer hours, the grand jury noted that police stations in Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai and Port Hueneme do not have 24-hour monitored camera surveillance outside.

Cameras at the Ventura Police Station were not working when the panel visited. Tracy said his department has been upgrading its surveillance system, which should be complete by next month.

Top marks went to the Simi Valley Police Department and the sheriff’s station in Thousand Oaks, both of which have 24-hour public lobbies, round-the-clock deputies at the stations, manned surveillance monitors and good outdoor lighting.

Simi Valley Police Lt. Rex Jones said his department was planning to spend $50,000 to upgrade the surveillance system, which is already powerful enough to allow deputies at monitoring stations to see what people are reading in the lobby.

The stations in Ventura, Moorpark and Ojai received poor marks for outdoor lighting and signs. Officials at those stations said they were evaluating the claims.

The law enforcement agencies are required to respond to the grand jury report within 90 days.