(San Mateo) Grand jury report praises police outsourcing

By Rob Franklin

The decision to contract out Half Moon Bay’s law enforcement to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office for the past two years has proven an effective solution to protecting the community at a lower cost, according to the grand jury report released July 25.

Strapped for money due to rising costs and pressing bond debt, Half Moon Bay’s City Council re-evaluated the structure of its police department in 2009. To cut costs, its two options were to either combine police forces with the Pacifica department or to begin contracting services from the County Sheriff’s Office. In June 2011, the City Council chose to implement the latter strategy because it offered a sustainable solution at a lower cost.

Some residents initially opposed the decision, despite the guarantee that the transition would not result in layoffs of local officers. Two years later, however, the grand jury reports “general satisfaction” with the Sheriff’s effectiveness at serving residents while cutting costs in Millbrae, San Carlos and Half Moon Bay. This “general satisfaction” was measured through interviews, response at town hall meetings, and first-year surveys sent to those who had interacted with law forcement.

Contracting police services enhances efficiency by eliminating redundancies in administrative staff and gives the officers themselves more opportunity to advance professionally within a larger police structure, according to grand jury foreman Timothy Johnson. The transition also benefits the County Sheriff’s Office by stabilizing the budget and strengthening the staff, said Sheriff Greg Munks in a recent article in the Daily Journal.

All data indicates success. Since 2011, the $2.3 million contract has saved Half Moon Bay $500,000 annually “without any reduction in services,” according to the report. In fact, because of the savings, the city has been able to reinstate discretionary programs such as the “D.A.R.E. program, traffic control officers, and school resource officers.”

Additionally, the city of Millbrae recently reported a 17 percent decline in crime and a 37-second decrease in average response time in dealing with the Sheriff’s services. While no such statistics exist to suggest that a drop in crime has occurred in Half Moon Bay, the grand jury reports there has not been an increase in “police involved incidences” associated with the transition on the Coastside.

Supported empirically with data on improvement and public response, the grand jury report advises all three counties to continue contracting their police forces from the Sheriff’s Office. The cities addressed in the report, namely the Half Moon Bay, Millbrae, and San Carlos city councils, must respond to the findings within 90 days of the report’s publication.

Based upon the grand jury’s findings, the cities will likely continue their arrangements with the Sheriff’s Office. “It’s one of those rare occasions where everything panned out as planned. This saved the cities money, and people are still satisfied,” said Johnson.

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