Compton OKs Contract With Sheriff’s Dept.

Four years after disbanding its own beleaguered police force, Compton is renewing its police services contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for five years.

Violent crime statistics have dropped significantly since the Sheriff’s Department took over, authorities say, and some residents say they feel safer.

Lorraine Cervantes, a community activist who criticized the changeover from the Compton Police Department, said: “Most of us believe they’re doing a good job.” In addition, she said, the city “cannot afford the kind of resources that we have under the Sheriff’s Department.”

The city will pay $12.1 million in the first year of the new contract, the second largest payout among the 40 cities with Sheriff’s Department agreements, said Lt. Richard Mouwen of the sheriff’s Contract Law Enforcement Bureau.

Some county supervisors contend that the county, caught in a budget crunch, should raise fees for police services provided by the Sheriff’s Department. An analysis requested by Supervisor Gloria Molina revealed in May that the county was subsidizing the cost of law enforcement in Compton and other cities.

The county auditor-controller’s office is conducting a study to help the Board of Supervisors decide if the county should charge for certain services it now provides free to contract cities, said Sharon Harper, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer. The study is not expected to be finished in time to affect the setting of fees in January for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, she said.

Compton’s new contract, which the City Council approved Tuesday, provides 73 deputies and one sergeant, plus the free services provided to contract cities. These include the homicide, narcotics and arson units, recruit training, the county crime lab and fingerprint identification.

The Compton council voted in July 2000 to disband the city’s police force, which the panel said was powerless to stop violent crime. Many Compton residents objected to the changeover, saying that the council and then-Mayor Omar Bradley should have conducted a citywide vote. Others accused Bradley of disbanding the force to settle a vendetta with the police union.

Four years later, violent crime in Compton has dropped. The number of violent crime incidents in 2003 was nearly 26% lower than in 2001, the first full year of service for the Compton Sheriff’s Station. Homicides in the city increased from 45 in 2001 to 52 in 2002, and then dropped to 43 last year, sheriff’s figures show.

“They don’t use brutal force, but they get the job done,” said Rodney Shaw, 45, a liquor store clerk.

Longtime Compton resident Sam Sherrod, 70, also is pleased with the Sheriff’s Department.

“You call them up, they’ll have 10 cars here in five minutes,” he said.