In a continued effort by the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association to improve the jobs, salary and training of Department of Developmental Services (DDS) and Department of State Hospital (DSH) police officers, CSLEA is supporting the Health and Human Services Agency’s May Revision Proposal To Create An Office Of Investigation And Law Enforcement Support.
“After numerous and continuing discussions with both departments and the agency to improve policies, training, salaries and the law enforcement structure, we think the Health and Human Services Agency’s proposal is a good one,” said CSLEA President Alan Barcelona.
Below are some video clips of the Assembly Budget Sub-Committee on Health and Human Services hearing (May 16, 2014) in which, among other things, recruiting and retention were addressed.
The law enforcement structure at DDS and DSH has been ineffective for many years. Over the last few years, CSLEA has encouraged the Departments and Agency to create an autonomous law enforcement division that can effectively manage the police forces at DDS and DSH. It is time for experienced law enforcement executives to manage the police officers at DDS and DSH. This would allow the other executives to focus on other areas, such as patient treatment, and will provide the staff and patients with a better police force.
The police forces at DDS and DSH cannot afford to be pushed to the back burner and there must be a division that makes law enforcement a priority and that can make informed law enforcement decisions. CSLEA is hopeful the proposed Office of Investigation and Law Enforcement Support is the first step in the process to improve the law enforcement chain of command, create thorough and effective policies and procedure, address significant recruitment and retention problems, and improve basic and specialized training.
CSLEA is grateful to the Agency and its Law Enforcement Consultant Frank Parrish for putting forth this proposal and its diligent efforts over the last year to address the concerns and issues of the police forces at DDS and DSH.
During Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittee on May 16th and 19th, the Subcommittees decided to hold open the proposal to create an Office of Investigation and Law Enforcement Support. It appears that the Committees are deciding on whether this proposal is worthy of inclusion in the 2014-15 Budget or if the Administration should come back with this proposal next year. As explained above, this proposal is the Administration’s first step to improving law enforcement at DDS and DSH. Given all the criticism of DDS and DSH over the last for years, it is imperative that the Legislature take immediate action and not prolong this further. As such, CSLEA is determined to provide its full support to this proposal in hopes that it will be included in the Governor’s 2014-15 Budget.
