Police cut 24-hour lobby hours in half

GLENDALE — The police headquarters’ 24-hour, open-door operation will be reduced to just 12 hours per day as part of the department’s latest cost-cutting move, officials announced Thursday.

Starting Sunday, the Police Department’s lobby and front desk on Isabel Street will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, except holidays. After 7 p.m., the lobby doors will shut, and visitors who need to do business at the Police Department will have to use an emergency phone located outside the building, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

“After 7 p.m., we do see a significant decline in attendance at the front desk, in regards to doing business,” he said.

Budget constraints and the need to effectively respond to a growing number of emergency calls pushed Police Department officials to free up front desk officers and assign them to patrol, Lorenz said.

The move to reduce lobby and front desk hours would put two additional full-time officers on street patrol, he said.

The Police Department is aiming to fully staff the front desk with civilian personnel, such as community service officers, in the near future, Lorenz said.

But the front desk may still be staffed with a police officer, depending on work schedules. Injured officers who are restricted to light duty could also be assigned to the front desk.

Police receive the most calls from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and have seen a 23% increase in demand for service in the last five years, according to the department’s 2008 Statistics and Organizational Structure report.

The new emergency phone was installed with a video camera Thursday morning outside the department’s front doors, and calls made on the phone will be answered by police dispatch during the evening hours.

Dispatchers would then call patrol officers to the lobby to provide service.

In the past, the lobby was open all holidays, but it will now be closed New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

Additional calls from the emergency phone would not create more work for police dispatchers and shouldn’t impair their ability to handle 9-1-1 calls, Lorenz said.

But it will create more work for people like bail bondsman Sharkey Klian, who said most of his business occurs during the time the front desk will be closed.

Klian owns Sharkey’s Bail Bonds on Glendale Avenue and sees an influx of customers after 6 p.m. because most people are working during the day and don’t have time or the immediate funds to bail their loved ones from jail.

So Klian tends to frequent the Police Department’s jail after 6 p.m. and throughout the night, he said.

Not being able to just walk into the Police Department’s lobby and visit incarcerated clients would delay the process, he said, adding that he already has difficulty reaching police personnel on the phone after hours.

“A police station should be open 24-7,” Klian said.

But resident Sandra Enriquez said the department’s effort to implement new hours in exchange for more officers on the streets was a fair trade.

“I would rather see them patrolling the streets of Glendale,” she said.

Enriquez, 32, a 20-year Glendale resident, said she’s taken notice of the recent rash of crimes.

“I don’t think I ever remember it being like this before,” she said.