Safety a matter of managing resources

Chub Domotor

In answer to the question, do you feel safe knowing the Huntington

Beach Police Department may be understaffed: Yes.

It’s not all about the number of officers, it’s about our

neighborhood and neighbors keeping watch for each other. You cannot

expect any police department to cover every area of a city, no matter

how many are on the force. It’s really how you manage your resources.

A prime example of mismanaging resources was the numerous

Huntington Beach police on Main Street last Sunday. I observed this

for a few hours and was amazed to see this activity after reading the

article, “Blue line a bit too thin.”

The majority of the officers were on motorcycles and were being

selective as to whom they were pulling over. Personally, I thought

the actions of the police that day appeared to be on the borderline

of harassment. However, based on the numbers of sworn officers and

sergeants on duty per overlapping shift that Police Chief Ken Small

stated, it made me wonder who was patrolling our neighborhoods.

As to the 10% staff reduction we see, it may have an effect.

However like any business, you adjust and make it work. For example,

if it takes 18 months to hire new officers as Small said, then the

process for hiring should be ongoing, 365 days a year ... whether or

not there is a hiring freeze, keep a reserve of possible hires on the

back burner. So when the time comes, one can go to the archive of

potential/approved candidates and see if they are available to hire.

My comment to City Councilman Gil Coerper’s statement to get 240

officers -- “”that’s what we need to do” -- is: No kidding! So what’s

your plan??

As to the influx of new developments, we obviously will need more

officers, and this should be a priority of our City Council when

creating the budget. However, to read that Kohl’s alone generated

such a high number of arrests, well maybe Huntington Beach officials

need to speak with Kohl’s management and assist them in finding a way

to correct this before hiring officers.

Regarding the helicopters: Yes they are good, but in general, they

are inefficient for patrolling. You can hear it coming (so the

criminal hides) and they fly by fast. Helicopters are good for only

one thing: pursuits. I wonder how much money it costs us to operate

our helicopters per year. This would be good to know.

* Chub Domotor is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to

“Sounding Off” e-mail us at [email protected] or fax us at

(714) 966-4667.