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Last Updated 5/28/08

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City Spending $1 Million on Police Department Study
Former CPD chief, city manager hired to conduct feasibility study; some say money could be better spent enhancing current law enforcement and other city services

By Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer

COMPTON – The City Council last week unanimously approved spending nearly $1 million on a study to determine whether or not it would be cost effective to re-launch a city-based police department.

Compton will pay one of its former police chiefs and city managers, Joseph T. Rouzan Jr., no more than $984,500 to prepare a feasibility analysis report and outline of issues related to city policing operations.

“Preliminary analysis of the city’s policing operations has resulted in the desire to compile alternative options for coordination and delivery of city police services,” reads the staff report. “Specifically, the public has expressed concern related to the analysis of public safety and policing in Compton. Initial findings indicate further detailed analysis is required, as well as refining of any potential future recommendations for corrective actions.”

The no-bid contract was May 20 approved 3-0, with Councilwoman Barbara Calhoun being absent and Councilman Isadore Hall recusing himself at the suggestion of the City Attorney’s office. Hall volunteers as a reserve deputy for the Sheriff’s Department, which currently provides policing services to the city.

The mayor in March requested the city fund a study on bringing back the Compton Police Department or launching something similar and joining it up with the Compton Unified School District and Compton Center police to form a metropolitan police department.

The order came after Mayor Eric J. Perrodin explained that he feels as though the city is constantly being disrespected by the department and, in particular, he by Sheriff Lee Baca.

That statement was mostly in relation to a then fresh incident involving a group of Municipal Law Enforcement Officers who verbally attacked a deputy after the deputy questioned their alleged use of force with an individual they were trying to arrest. The fact that the deputy called for backup angered Perrodin, who demanded that the deputy be transferred. The Sheriff’s Department did not heed the mayor’s wishes because, according to an internal investigation, the deputy was found to have followed proper protocol.

Perrodin, a former Compton police officer, has never been a fan of the Sheriff’s Department, which assumed responsibility for policing the area in 2000 after the embattled police department was disbanded by the previous administration after corrupt practices were uncovered.

“I think that the best law enforcement you can have is your own because they will be accountable to you,” Perrodin said in March. “Outsiders, when you pay them, they don’t listen to you.”

Part of that issue lies in the fact that the Sheriff’s Department has separate policy and protocols from the city, which prevents the city from intervening in certain situations that it would otherwise be able to if it had its own department.

City Manager Charles Evans said his office conducted a search to identify a qualified company to administer the study. Rouzan, an individual, was found to be the most highly qualified.

“It was a somewhat painstaking effort, but we did find a very qualified individual to head up this operation,” said Evans. “It’s a multi-year situation…and we felt that it was something that had to be done thoroughly, professionally and efficiently.

“His background is impeccable,” Evans continued. “He’s the former police chief for the city of Compton, former city manager of the city of Compton, former police chief in the city of Inglewood, former city manager of Inglewood…So with his background and the nature and extent of the study that we are going to undertake, we felt that he was the best candidate.”

But according to a March 6 article in another local paper, Rouzan had apparently been conferring with the city about the study at least since Perrodin’s initial March 4 request. Rouzan was interviewed for that article and said the city was conducting the study to determine how economically sound such a move would be.

Some taxpayers aren’t too keen on shouldering the study’s cost, which they described as excessive.

“I can certainly understand why the city would like to do a feasibility study, but my question is the financial impact,” said Robert Ray, an active resident who volunteers with the Sheriff’s Department.

“That million dollars could be used towards the law enforcement we already have…I understand the reason why you’re doing it, and I have no problem with that, but a million dollars for a study, I think, is rather exorbitant.”

Another active community member, Joyce Kelly, agrees.

“Especially nowadays when this country is in a recession – no one wants to say it, but it is. I don’t understand why so much money would be utilized knowing that the state and federal government are going to decrease the amount of money coming into the city,” she said. “There are other things that money could be used for. And I’m sure that if you search around, you can find someone who can do it for less money.”

No one, however, took issue with the fact that Rouzan could be slightly biased because he used to head the Compton Police Department (CPD).

As to whether or not the city is dead-set on re-establishing its own department, Evans said that if it is not cost effective, the plans will be scrapped.

Voters in 2004 rejected Perrodin’s previous at-tempt to bring back the CPD, opting to keep the Sheriff’s Department in place.

A portion of the nearly $1 million will come out of the current fiscal year’s budget, while the remaining amount will be worked into the 2008-09 and 2009-10 budgets, according to the staff report.

Earlier this fiscal year, the city was grappling with cash flow problems to such a degree that citywide solid waste hauling services were nearly suspended in December when the city failed to pay its trash bill on time.

Taxpayers countywide are currently footing the bill for millions of dollars worth of services, including more than 30 free deputies and detectives who specialize in gangs, being provided by the Sheriff’s Department at no cost to the city because the city says it cannot afford to pay for them.