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Police/Fire Budget Hearing: No Councilmembers Make Motions Or Urge Restoring Any Portions Of Previous Police/Fire Levels, Including PD Field Anti-Gang Unit; No Neighborhood or Business Groups Testify On Public Safety; Full Budget Adoption Votes Loom In Early September


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(Aug. 19, 2015) -- As seen LIVE on LBREPORT.com, on Aug. 18, eight of LB's City Councilmembers (Councilwoman Price absent for a previously scheduled vacation) had a public hearing opportunity to voice their views and make motions to change aspects of FY16 proposed police, fire and emergency preparedness FY16 budgets...but after over two hours of discussion, no Councilmember(s) made any motions to change the budgets that as currently proposed won't restore all or any part of LBPD's field anti-gang unit) or restore fire engines (capable of spraying water to put out fires) no longer operating at Stations 8, 14 or 18.

The lack of motions now doesn't necessarily means Councilmembers won't move to make changes when the full City budget comes to the Council in early September, but no Councilmembers made any statements indicating they would do so at that time.

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No neighborhood groups, or business groups testified on the proposed police department and fire department budgets. Some Councilmembers asked and seemed satisfied to learn that the management proposed, Mayor recommended FY16 proposed budget makes no changes in police or firefighter staffing from the FY15 budget.

No Councilmembers questioned, and some appeared to accept, management's position (articulated by Police Chief Robert Luna) that budgeting $2.2 million in overtime for FY16 (as the Council did in FY15) would have anti-gang impacts -- although the budget won't fund LBPD's field anti-gang unit (which the Council budgeted at half strength with one time funding in FY13 and then allowed to disappear in FY14.) Since FY10, LB taxpayers have seen their level of budgeted officers available for routine citywide deployment drop by what is now roughly 200 officers, a loss of over 20% of LBPD's sworn citywide force since FY10.

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, LBPD still has a budgeted anti-gang unit (handling investigations, filing cases and the like) but the Council no longer budgets LBPD's former field anti-gang unit, which previously deployed 20 officers + 2 sergeants in gang impacted neighborhoods, where officers could observe conditions firsthand, work contacts and gather intelligence.

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Management's proposed FY16 proposed PD budget mentions gangs, but does so in the context of $2.2 million in budgeted overtime -- the same overtime sum budgeted in FY15. LBPD's budget narrative proposes allocating the $2.2 million from oil revenue for "Overtime to patrol, suppress, investigate and prosecute violent crime activities [with] [o]vertime allocated to gang enforcement, violent crime suppression, homicide investigations and other priorities as determined by the Chief of Police."

The issue came up in Council colloquy after 9th dist. Councilman Rex Richardson mentioned that human trafficking was a serious problem in parts of NLB, and Police Chief Luna elaborated, citing a gang component:

Chief Luna:...From the gang perspective, our strategies for this department have really changed over the last several years where everybody is focused on gang suppression. So for example, under the human trafficking example, our vice unit leads the efforts and gets other specialized units involved around the department and we make these arrests and 90% of these arrests we find are gang members that we're taking off the street for many years at a time, so they're not victimizing other people, because we find that they're not only doing human trafficking but they're dealing narcotics, they're suspects in shootings, at time they're victims in shootings, so it's a strategy that I think will make this city safer as time goes on.

Councilman Richardson: ...I was skeptical about the cross-training approach of sort of eliminating the gang unit, cross training everyone, and I expressed this to you last year, but I have to give it to you, I've seen the statistics in district 9, I've seen the direction they're headed, I've seen the arrests that have been made, the high profile arrests that have been made, and the lack of activity this past summer, this current summer, I've seen an improvement, so I have to hand that to you...

Chief Luna: ...And I wanted to clarify something you said in your earlier statement that we had gotten rid of our gang unit. We actually still have a gang enforcement section which investigates gang crime...that specifically is assigned all of our gang cases in the city. That section also has a very good intelligence portion of it. What we eliminated, due to budget reductions in the last several years, was the field enforcement portion of that gang section.

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4th dist. Councilman Daryl Supernaw followed up:

Councilman Supernaw...I guess the clarification I'd like is, I think we're talking about the difference between a unit or section that exists versus the function they perform, and where you no longer have the field gang unit, someone is performing that type of function still with the police department.

Chief Luna: Correct. We have a variety of specialized units in the field that have taken on that responsibility because we don't have the field unit to do that any longer.

Councilman Supernaw: OK. It's like the unit goes away but the function is still being performed so I just...

Chief Luna: Violent crime and gangs is one of our priorities and we're addressing it with every man and woman we have.

1st dist. Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez acknowledged that her district has had a number of recent shootings but in discussing the proposed FY16 budget omitted the term "overtime," stating: "Although we're not at the levels we'd like to be, I think the commitment to using discretionary funding [refers to oil revenue] for gang suppression for me is tremendous..."

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Councilwoman Stacy Mungo referenced a possibility of adding more officers, but stopped short of making such a commitment, if a Council majority (possibly as soon as Sept. 1) were to direct preparation of a new ordinance that would let some medical marijuana outlets resume operations in Long Beach. Councilwoman Mungo stated: "...[S]hould the Council bring forward a marijuana ordinance that we would be looking to allocate significant additional resources to your department that we don't currently have available. Is that an accurate statement?"

Chief Luna replied by reiterating his views on the need for additional resources in such circumstances:

Chief Luna: I think I'm on the record saying is that history has shown us that having these clinics, both operating -- I'm not going to say legally because I don't know if that's even the appropriate term -- but operating in the city, we had a lot of citizen complaints about the activity in and around those locations which increases our workload. So obviously, with these clinics coming in based on our past experience, it would increase the workload of our men and women on the street which is going to impact our service overall, negatively.

Councilwoman Mungo responded: "This is a big concern for me." [As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, Councilwoman Suzie Price has previously voiced similar views publicly (LBREPORT.com coverage here..)

Mayor Garcia concluded the police/fire budget hearing by stating his understanding that as of Aug. 18, there'd been no increase in the number of murders in Long Beach, about the same as last year, perhaps give or take one or two. Chief Luna said this was true. Mayor Garcia then said last year was a historic low. Chief Luna agreed that it was.

Mayor Garcia then stated, "From a murder point of view, we're still kind of facing a historic low number" to which Chief Luna replied that most of the big cities across the country had experienced significant increases. Garcia then added that it's his understanding that the increase in murder rates had jumped dramatically in many cases in a lot of urban areas. Chief Luna said he thinks the average was about 19% across the country, especially on the east coast. Mayor Garcia then stated.

"So I think as far as for Long Beach is concerned to see that level of consistency, while certainly no murders, we don't want any to happen obviously in our community, but to have that historic low I think stay the same is not just a testament to the work that the men and women of your department do, but also to the really continuum of public safety practice that we have. I think the work that's happening in the parks, in our schools, through our Health Dept., through our non-profits, it just goes to show even with all the additional pressures that you guys are just doing an incredible job..."

[Editor's note: As the Council was meeting, a homicide occurred when a man was apparently struck with a bottle during a fight in the area 10th/Alamitos, and about an hour later, two people were shot/wounded in the 6300 block of LB Blvd. (NW NLB Coolidge Triangle area)]



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