UCPD suffers once again from state budget cuts

University police have been forced to scale back because of consecutive, 5 percent cuts that have slashed the police department’s budget in 2009 and again in 2010.

These cuts stem from a loss of state funding, which provides for about 50 percent, or $6 million, of the UCPD budget.

In general, UCPD must be more wary with the way it spends money, said assistant chief of police Jeff Young. The first areas cut are new equipment purchases, meaning police have not been able to replace some cars and computers that have worn out.

Enforced furloughs have caused reduced pay for civilian UCPD employees, Young said, including analysts and spokespeople.

There are also six job openings for officers that have gone unfilled to save money on salaries, Young said. Police may soon cut back on training for officers, he added.

Although 24 hours of perishable training is mandated per year, any optional training opportunities can suffer from budget cuts because money is required to send officers to training, especially out of town, Young said.

However, Young said no jobs have been lost as a result of budget cuts.

“We’re at minimum staffing as it is. We wouldn’t want to go any lower,” he said.

UCPD aims to reduce spending in areas that have the least impact on the community, said UCPD spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein.

“We have to ensure all our services are provided and our response time remains very low, which it does,” Greenstein said.

She added that crime rates remain unaffected by the budget cuts.

“Safety is a big issue, so (the university tries) to keep the cuts as small as possible,” Young said. “Other departments suffered bigger cuts.”

Greenstein said she does not know if cuts will be worse in the near future but said the governor has called a special session to revisit the state budget.

“We’re all just waiting to hear what’s going to happen. It’s obviously clear that there’s not going to be an infusion of money,” Greenstein said.

Though improbable at this point, the worst case scenario would involve reducing specialty positions such as the number of detectives or having more cases per detective, Young said.

To help with cuts, police can apply for grants, but the amount they receive varies per year and comprises a very small portion of the budget, Greenstein said.

For example, police receive a small yearly grant for ensuring that people use their seat belts, Young said. In the past, other grants have covered special projects, police officers and equipment, Greenstein said.

While Greenstein said UCPD once was more successful in receiving certain grants, recently, municipalities such as the Los Angeles Police Department have been receiving the money instead.

“It’s been a little harder lately for colleges,” she said. “I just think that because of the recession there’s a lot of need in the community, and (people) try to prioritize according to crime stats. It’s very competitive now.”

In the face of budget cuts, the future is a common cause for concern among students.
Nicole Nguyen, a fourth-year sociology student, said police are key to her peace of mind.

“How are we supposed to feel safe on campus?” she said. “Who will be there to protect us?”

Ngoc Hanh Pham, a second-year sociology student, said the budget’s downward slope worries her, and she fears the people in charge of allocating the university budget may not care enough about student safety.

“It’s a cycle we’re stuck in,” Pham said. “Lack of money can potentially … cause more problems, and we’ll have to use money to solve those problems.”

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