Long Beach Police & Fire Budget Cuts

[LAflyer]

Add Long Beach to the long list of cities that are experiencing budget pains.

According to the proposed 2013 budget - 43 sworn officers and firefighters would be cut through attrition.

The Police department will combine its South and West divisions into a new Central Division and eliminate leases at two facilities.

Fire Department will remove yet determined number of engines, and make all ambulances BLS - while increasing their count from 8 to 11.

Story:
UPDATED: Proposed Long Beach budget cuts police, libraries, youth programs - ContraCostaTimes.com

=

[wb6pwj]

Everything looks grim. The radio shop had 23 people 15 years ago when I was new. Now whenever someone leaves the position is eliminated. We are down to 17 people and we have taken on the video cameras.

I am now the drive up tech and portable tech. I have no backup. When I go to lunch the officers wait.

We Wireless have not yet had lay-offs but we do more with far less. Nothing gets PM'd anymore.

[LAflyer]

Here is a more detailed story about LB looking to go to an all BLS ambulance model, while upgrading all their 16 engines to Paramedic assessment.

They figure medical air response times could actually improve as instead of being able to handle 8 concurrent paramedic calls, the capacity would rise to 11 with revised unit staffing.

Also such a move could save $1mil of the fire department budget in the coming year.

The firefighters union opposes the change stating patient care would be compromised.

The department also expect that by September it will have identified which one of its 17 current engine companies that will be taken out of service permanently.


Long Beach Fire Department considers single paramedic response system - ContraCostaTimes.com

=

[pepsima1]

Originally Posted by LAflyer

Here is a more detailed story about LB looking to go to an all BLS ambulance model, while upgrading all their 16 engines to Paramedic assessment.

They figure medical air response times could actually improve as instead of being able to handle 8 concurrent paramedic calls, the capacity would rise to 11 with revised unit staffing.

Also such a move could save $1mil of the fire department budget in the coming year.

The firefighters union opposes the change stating patient care would be compromised.

The department also expect that by September it will have identified which one of its 17 current engine companies that will be taken out of service permanently.


Long Beach Fire Department considers single paramedic response system - ContraCostaTimes.com

=

Sad to see so many cuts. It's just one city right after another. Cutting Police and Fire is not the way to go but our "smart officials" I guess know best. The private sector took the brunt of the storm the past 5 to 7 years ago and now the public sector is finally getting a big slug to the jaw right now. Once all of these cities do all of their cuts then they will realize what damage they have done and start to hire in groves again. That will be a couple of years out.

[wb6pwj]

In Talking to the Paramedics in for radio service this is not yet a done deal. LA County must first approve the changes.They would not guess at to the outcome.

[Robertolson]

little confused here...... so one Paramedic on the engine and one Paramedic on the Ambulance is this correct ?

[patin]

on long beach pd facebook page they are now accepting police recruit applications but yet they say they have no money whats the deal

[monitor142]

They are probably establishing an eligibility list for new officers if funding permits. Getting a list established is the cheaper part of hiring new recruits. If the funding isn't there then the classes will just be delayed until they are too low on numbers and have authorized positions that need to be filled. Backfilling vacant spots using OT only gets you so far....not to mention that they have a lot of veteran officers that are able to retire now.

-M142

[wb6pwj]

They are really going to run a class. Officers are needed for attrition.

[karldotcom]

I am sure a rookie costs half what a retiring veteran does!

[wb6pwj]

They have to plan ahead. It takes two years before a rookie is experienced enough to be a full fledged officer.

[rsgorman]

I was updateing my database and noticed Long Beach FD is not listed under LA County anymore and all the freqs I had dont seem to be acitve. Did they cut back on their radio system or change freqs?

[markclark]

rsgorman:

LBFD is now narrowband. Make sure you have changed out the PL tones to DPL if you want them, otherwise, listen in the clear.

[wb6pwj]

WE have finished our narrowband project. All Long Beach channels are now narrow with DPL. The exception is Gas that is a P25 system and our infant 700Mhz system.