Straight into Compton

THE CITY OF COMPTON IS a case study of how more police can lead to less crime. It also may be a political crucible for Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, whose decision to use the county’s money to make Compton safer is as gutsy as it is risky.

Baca, who is up for reelection in June, has doubled the number of Sheriff’s Department personnel assigned to Compton, and the effect has been dramatic. The city has long been a hub of gang activity, but as Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton began focusing gang enforcement activities in surrounding areas, it pushed even more gang members into Compton. The result has been an explosion of gang crime and violence there in recent years; there were 72 homicides in Compton in 2005. So far this year, there have been three.

Compton contracts with the Sheriff’s Department for police services, paying $14 million a year for 78 deputies. Baca has shifted an additional 78 specialized personnel, such as gang enforcement officers, from stations in unincorporated areas of the county -- which means that those taxpayers are subsidizing Compton’s law enforcement. Residents of dispersed L.A.-area communities have long complained about paying more for public services than they receive, which is what makes Baca’s move so politically risky.

Reducing gang activity in Compton may have a ripple effect, lowering crime rates elsewhere in the county. Further, Sheriff’s Department officials have assured county supervisors that they will monitor crime elsewhere and quickly move resources back to any area that shows an increase. So far, according to Undersheriff Larry Waldie, there have been no such increases.

Nonetheless, Compton residents have to recognize that the rest of the county won’t go on paying for their police services indefinitely. Compton Mayor Eric Perrodin is backing a property tax hike to pay for more full-time deputies. Many Compton residents can ill-afford a tax increase, but they can less afford to let their city remain a gang war zone. They now have ample evidence of the difference that extra officers can make.

Though incumbent sheriffs typically coast to victory in L.A. County, Baca will take on four opponents with strong credentials in June, and his record, particularly on the troubled jail system, has been mixed. If nothing else, his strategy in Compton shows that he has the courage of his convictions.