State Should Pay for Extra Cops: Mayor

Under a court order to cut prison rolls by 30,000 inmates, California last week began transferring some low-level offenders to county jails. At the same time, the state is handing off the oversight of parolees to county governments.

But Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck said Monday that he believes many of the parolees will wind up on the streets of Los Angeles – with inadequate support to keep them from committing crimes anew.
 
Beck and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday called on Gov. Jerry Brown to help pay for the 150 officers they say will be necessary to staff gang intervention efforts and other programs aimed at policing the parolees.

"Those 150 officers are going to come right out of the streets of Los Angeles,” Beck said. “So 911 calls will take longer to answer, reports will take longer to write and our system will suffer.”
Local counties will receive funds to oversee the parolees and house the low-level inmates – but cities get little or nothing to help with any issues that spill over onto their turf, the police chief said.

According to state figures, about 6,000 parolees will be released in Los Angeles County in the coming months, and about 7,800 low-level offenders will be transferred from state prisons to county jails here.