City Council Approves Study of Alternate Police Service

The City of Menifee is joining other local cities in exploring options for alternative police services. Menifee 24/7 photo: Doug Spoon

The Menifee City Council Wednesday unanimously approved the city's participation in a feasibility study to determine the potential of partnering with several other local cities to create a police force separate from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

If it happens, this would detach Menifee and the other cities from the Sheriff's Department, with which they now contract for police services. City officials made it clear at Wednesday night's meeting that the sole driving force behind the proposed Joint Powers Authority is financial.

According to city documents, the City of Menifee pays $10.7 million per year to the Sheriff's Department for police services -- 36 percent of the general fund. Officers are assigned out of the Sheriff's substation in Perris to patrol Menifee, with the captain of that station serving as Menifee Police Chief. (Photo below courtesy of City of Menifee).

In a May 2014 report to the City Council, former police chief Mike Judge said the Sheriff's Department provides 23 patrol officers serving Menifee. Even when adding in "dedicated" officers (administration, etc.), that works out to less than .5 officers per 1,000 residents -- about half of the county's suggested standard. Judge said in that report that there are 10 to 15 officers a day on patrol in Menifee, and those officers are divided into three shifts. That means that at any one time, there may be no more than five patrol officers working a city of more than 85,000 covering about 50 square miles.

The City of Menifee's goal is to reduce the cost per police officer in order to put more officers on the streets. According to the feasibility study proposal introduced Wednesday, violent crimes in Menifee have risen from 64 in 2010 to 107 in 2014, the last year for which complete numbers are available. Property crimes have risen from 1,339 in 2010 to 1,501 in 2014.

Adding to the challenge for police officers is AB 109 -- legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2011 that allows for the early release of non-violent, non-serious, and non-sex offenders. Many reports sent to the media by the Sheriff's Department include information that individuals arrested are prior offenders who received early release because of AB 109.

"This is not about the quality of service," said city manager Rob Johnson. "The Sheriff's Department does a phenomenal job through the deputies who serve here. This is all about rising costs."

In other words, city officials realize the urgent need to provide more police protection in the rapidly growing city of Menifee, but believe they are unable to do so under the current financial picture.

According to documents presented in the study proposal, the cost per hour for patrol services in Menifee has risen from $111.80 in 2007-08 to $149 this year. When you combine what the city pays for police and fire services, it already is using 64 percent of its budget on public safety.

The council's approval of staff's request to participate in the study designates $25,000 from the general fund for Menifee's share of a feasibility study by Matrix Consulting Group, the company participating cities determined was most cost effective. The City of San Jacinto is serving as the lead entity in the partnership to consider a JPA. So far eight cities have agreed to participate, including Moreno Valley, Temecula and Lake Elsinore, and six others are considering joining, Johnson said.

According to the proposal, 17 Riverside County cities contract with the Sheriff's Department to provide police services. The others have their own police department, including Murrieta and Hemet.

Johnson assured council members that participation in the study, which is expected to take several months, does not obligate Menifee to join the JPA.

"We just want to identify the advantages and disadvantages of creating a JPA," he said. "We want to take a better look at existing services and we want to define the method of service delivery. This would include salary and benefits paid to officers."

The study would include an examination of the cost to cities such as Murrieta for police services versus the cost paid to the Sheriff's Department. Many factors would have to be considered, including the cost of patrol, dispatch, jail services, investigation and crime prevention.

"What good is the City Council doing if we're not even willing to look at the numbers?" asked council member Matt Liesemeyer, a member of the city's public safety committee along with council member Greg August.

"I hope the other cities vote for this to at least know what they don't know now," said Mayor Scott Mann.

Johnson said that if cities decide after the study that such a JPA isn't feasible, they will at least have more accurate numbers with which to attempt to negotiate a better contract with the Sheriff's Department.