LANCASTER TO BOOST CRIME FORCE CITY WILL SPEND $1.2 MILLION TO HIRE PERSONNEL.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Lancaster will spend $1.2 million to bolster its crime fighting efforts, including hiring seven community service officers and a law enforcement technician.

As part of its midyear budget adjustments, Lancaster will increase its community service officers from eight to 15. Of the 90,000 calls for service received a year at the Lancaster sheriff's station from city residents, about 10,000 could be handled by community service officers, saving the equivalent workload of five full-time deputies.

``This is a way of using existing sworn personnel more effectively,'' said Assistant City Manager Mark Bozigian. ``They (deputies) can then attack high-priority issues. This will give them more time for proactive law enforcement.''

Uniformed but unarmed, community service officers can take reports on minor, nonemergency crimes, answer phones, issue parking citations and direct traffic at crash scenes and special events.

Lancaster officials have decided to take the CSO positions out of the sheriff's contract and make those positions city jobs, just as the city of Palmdale did last fall. The idea is that the city can speed up the hiring process and would pay more than what the county could pay.

Under the county pay system, CSOs have a pay range of $1,802 to $2,246 a month. Lancaster will mirror Palmdale's pay scale for the CSOs, which is $2,769 to $3,535 a month.

``We think it's going to be a great addition,'' said Capt. Carl Deeley, commander of the Lancaster sheriff's station.

The city also plans to add a law enforcement technician for the Lancaster Community Appreciation Project unit that combats crimes stemming from rental properties. Deeley said the position would be like an office manager, fielding calls, coordinating meetings and seeking out monetary grants, among other tasks.

The position will free up the equivalent of one deputy, officials said.

Ideally, the city would like to add more deputies. However, with a countywide shortage of more than 1,000 deputies, that is not possible at this time, Deeley said. The Lancaster station has 20 vacancies that are being filled now by deputies working overtime.

With a push by the county to hire more deputies, Deeley expects to begin filling those vacancies later this year. It might be possible to add deputies in the next fiscal year, Deeley said.

The Lancaster sheriff's station will likely see the addition of about five deputies and one lieutenant as the result of discussions between the city and the Sheriff's Department adjusting the contract for law enforcement.

``It's like Christmas in July with all this good news,'' Deeley said.

Other efforts included in the city's midyear budget adjustment include starting studies aimed at slowing traffic and deterring crashes, including an analysis of cameras linked to traffic signals; installing security cameras at some city parks; continuing a park patrol; and starting a ``best practices'' study in which the city will look at practices of other law enforcement organizations in handling issues similar to those faced by Lancaster.

The city will also look at ways to make it easier for residents to get reports taken on minor crimes. That effort will look at both allowing report-taking to be done by phone and over the Internet.

Although not part of the midyear adjustment, the city will be bringing in a fingerprint technician within the next few days. The position will help expedite the processing of fingerprint evidence.

In a separate move that city officials said will impact crime, the city will spend about $317,000 to enhance building code enforcement. The city will hire four additional code enforcement officers and one administrative clerk. The city now has four code enforcement officers.

The city is also planning to hire the same law firm the city of Palmdale uses for its code enforcement efforts, Drapeer, Rosenbilt and Litvak, LLP.

``Our neighboring city, Palmdale, has an aggressive code enforcement policy,'' Assistant City Manager Al Holliman said in a report to the City Council. ``When the adjacent jurisdiction enforces their municipal code and the code offenders do not comply with the municipal code, the offenders move to Lancaster. If the city of Lancaster has the same legal team as the adjacent jurisdiction, those code offenders will have to comply or leave the Antelope Valley.''

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com