All seven Hermosa Beach police sergeants have strongly urged the City Council not to look outside the department for help patrolling the Pier Plaza nightlife, contending that private security guards would not be qualified to do the job, and law officers from outside agencies would be more expensive to hire.
Police found comments from a recent Hermosa Beach City Council meeting “demoralizing” and “insulting,” wrote Sgt. Robert Higgins in an email to the council. Higgins is a 15-year veteran of the police force who supervises patrol of the Pier Plaza and the beach. The email was also signed by Sergeants Donald Jones, Dorothy Scheid, Kevin Averill, Landon Phillips, Jaime Ramirez and Raul Saldana.
At the council meeting, Mayor Howard Fishman repeated a call to consider hiring security guards to help control excess noise and rowdiness by late-night Plaza patrons, saying that could reduce the cost of overtime pay for Hermosa police officers patrolling the Plaza.
Councilman Michael DiVirgilio said he wants to explore “seasonal and temporary” aid to the Police Department in the May-to-December period when more revelers go to the downtown area. DiVirgilio cited $20,000 the council allocated to former Chief Greg Savelli last summer, to cover overtime for his officers or to hire officers from outside law enforcement agencies.
“I’d love to have less staff when we have less need, and more staff when we have more need,” he said.
Councilman Peter Tucker also told his colleagues that he wants to reduce police overtime costs, including those incurred in patrolling the Plaza, but he added that the savings could be used to hire one or two additional officers.
“Stand a post on the Plaza any busy night – all night, not the couple of hours in a police car we generally see from our council members — and see how important the 10-year learning curve on the Plaza has been, and how pulling the rug out from under the HBPD now would jeopardize public safety there and citywide,” Higgins wrote.
“Citizens on the Plaza know there is an HBPD police officer within shouting distance standing a post or on patrol dedicated to the Plaza,” Higgins wrote. “I wonder if Council does not know, or does not care how important the HBPD’s presence is on the Plaza. It seems that public safety on the Plaza has become a political football.”
The email points out that some vacant police positions have been frozen in recent years, and contends that the council “has eviscerated the HBPD senior officers and managers” through citywide early retirement offers under consideration by some department personnel. Higgins also questioned how the council would use the money from increased business license taxes for some nightspots, which voters approved in the fall.
“The HBPD now does not have enough staff to put fulltime officers on the Plaza as we have done in the past, so we bring in HBPD officers on overtime to cover it,” Higgins wrote. “…If Council truly wants to cut resources dedicated to the Plaza, Council needs to end the Plaza’s current incarnation as a nightlife destination. But I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon.”
Higgins listed “recent examples of what HBPD police officers do on the Plaza:
“We get hurt and go to the hospital: one of our officers was punched in the face by a suspect trying to run away. Another officer’s thumb was broken by the suspect while taking the suspect into custody. One officer’s face was black and blue for a week, the other had their hand in a cast for six weeks.
“My left elbow was fractured breaking up a fight on the Plaza, which later required surgery.
“We make quick judgments: a suspect was nearly shot by HBPD officers when he pointed a realistic replica pistol at a citizen. Our officer’s experience saved that suspects life by waiting a split second and not shooting him.
“We catch fleeing suspects: HBPD officers on that Plaza caught a fleeing suspect that had just severely beaten a man for merely being gay…HBPD officers immediately identified and apprehended a suspect in a stabbing that occurred at one of the Plaza establishments.”
Higgins wrote that security guards “do not have the power of arrest like a police officer, and I can guarantee they would not garner respect from a drunk ‘Grape Street Crip’ who decides he wants to fistfight (or worse) anyone he sees (as another example of what we handle on the Plaza).
“Or perhaps Council was thinking of staffing the Plaza with police officers from other agencies? That would cost more money since the HBPD is on the bottom of the pay scale regionally…and would be a massive slap in the face of the HBPD and citizens of Hermosa Beach.”
Higgins also wondered “who is going to handle the upcoming smoking ban on the Plaza [see story, same page]. With no police officers there to enforce it, it’s just plain moronic to think bar patrons will abide by the new ordinance on their own. As we are all aware, alcohol tends to cause people to obey laws less, not more.”
In an interview, Fishman declined to offer a “point-by-point-by-point” reaction to Higgins’ email.
“Employees certainly have the right to weigh in and comment any way they want to. They have a right to express their opinion. Other than that, I really have no comment on that,” Fishman said. “If they feel that something does not sound right to them, they have a right to express that.”
He said any decisions about patrolling the Plaza would require three council votes.
“I always have an open mind on these things,” Fishman said.
DiVirgilio said staffing decisions should be made with seasonal needs in mind, using as an example a higher demand for parks and recreation services in the summer.
“I’m saying let’s pay for our resources, including our staff time, in a way that meets our needs,” he said. “…Seasonal personnel doesn’t mean lower quality, it means let’s have the bodies when we need the bodies.”
DiVirgilio said he was trying to arrange a meeting with Hermosa Beach Police Officers Association personnel to clear the air.
“I think they are reacting to something they not actually hearing,” he said.
Tucker was unavailable for comment.
