2 Residents Advocate City Priority on Police

Two residents of the Palos Verdes neighborhood urged the City Council Tuesday night to put a higher priority on policing the community.

Jacqueline Halm said she was concerned "about cuts to the police department and diminishing support for the police department." Walnut Creek devotes a smaller percentage of general fund support to police compared to other area cities, Halm said.

With the magnet of Walnut Creek's downtown bars, a rough crowd is coming from other cities around the county and Oakland, Halm said. "Walnut Creek is easy pickings," she said.

The Palos Verdes neighborhood has been hard hit by burglars, and most residents have home security systems, Halm said.

Halm was followed at the microphone by Terry Raines. "This is ridiculous," he said, saying the council was "spending money in arts and entertainment and cutting public services … you need to get back to taking care of those citizens that you're elected to represent."

Halm and Raines were accompanied by a half-dozen neighbors in Palos Verdes, in the Larkey Park area. At a later point in the meeting, Raines had a conversation with Walnut Creek Police Chief Joel Bryden in the hallway outside the council chambers.

The residents' advocacy at the council comes a week after that affect community policing and traffic enforcement.

City Council members had no immediate response to the complaints about police funding as it was not an item on Tuesday's agenda. There were incidental mentions of police funding in a 18-month update of the city's 2010-12 budget. That report from the Finance Department noted that, with parking enforcement staff levels less than anticipated in 2010, fewer parking violations have been issued with a reduction of $410,000 in citation revenues.