Public safety officer can now continue full-time

By Leigh Ann Maze

The Saratoga City Council on Jan. 19 unanimously approved a new round of funding for the Citizen's Option for Public Safety program, as recommended by the Sheriff's Department Westside Substation commander.

COPS funding began in 1996 with a bill signed by Gov. Pete Wilson and allocates money every year on a per-capita basis to each city in the state for local law-enforcement.

This year, Saratoga will receive $69,394 from the state, which will go directly to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department to improve its law-enforcement services in Saratoga. The money will allow the city to continue funding a full-time public-safety officer who supplements low-level municipal law enforcement and performs other community outreach duties. The public safety officer was hired last year on a contractual basis using last year's COPS funding.

"It's been successful," City Manager Larry Perlin said of the additional public-safety officer. "So we're continuing to allocate our COPS funding toward that."

This year's funding also will continue to allow the community-service officer who oversees the public-safety officer to work full-time, five days a week. Until last year's round of COPS funding for increased working hours, the community-service officer worked 24 hours per week.

The remaining COPS funding will go to patrol hours for the Sheriff's Department's swing-shift patrol unit, Perlin said.

According to Capt. Jeff Miles, the Sheriff's Department Westside Substation commander, the swing-shift officer patrols in addition to the two regular patrol units and is responsible for handling traffic accidents, traffic enforcement and especially drunken driving. The swing-shift officer also increased patrol hours from 24 hours per week to 40 hours per week last year, thanks to the COPS funding.

According to a sheriff's report, there were 66 drunken-driving arrests in Saratoga in 1998 and 89 drunken-driving arrests in 1999. "There has been a significant increase in the number of drunk-driving arrests," Miles said. "A lot of those can be attributed to the additional traffic-enforcement car."

The additional money needed to support the swing-shift officer comes from the city's general fund. Perlin said that next year's COPS funding may be enough to completely cover the total $44,000 needed for the full-time swing-shift officer if Gov. Gray Davis' budget proposal is approved this spring. Davis is proposing to give a minimum of $100, 000 in COPS funding to cities like Saratoga that bring in less than that amount each year. The proposal will also guarantee the funding for five years so agencies can use it toward long-term goals, according to Los Gatos Town Manager Dave Knapp.

Last year, the Sheriff's Department Westside Substation used the COPS funding to purchase seven video cameras and monitors that were mounted in patrol cars and wireless microphones for the deputies. The system is automatically activated when a patrol car's emergency lights are turned on and it records visually and audibly what occurs between deputies and their subjects.

"They've worked out just fine," Miles said.

Although recordings have not yet been used in trials as evidence, Miles said they have been used to develop training materials on emergency response and to discredit claims of misconduct by sheriff's deputies.

Photos: Great Race and Highway 9 closure

Editorial: Yes on Measure N

Obituaries

Saratoga Sampler

Sports Briefs

High school soccer

High school basketball