LONG BEACH TRAFFIC FATALITIES CRISIS
“Long Beach vowed to eliminate deadly crashes; instead, they’re the highest in over a decade”, Long Beach Post
“Speeding Tesla crashes through Bixby Knolls pharmacy, slams into coffee shop”, Long Beach Post
POLICE DEPT. FIGURES
FY 2010 Police Budget:
1,020 budgeted officer positions – 5% vacancy rate = 969 sworn officers
2016:
* Beginning with FY12, the City stopped publishing the total number of sworn officers in the annual police budget. The police budget continued to include long lists of the number of personnel by classification, but with no clear indication differentiating between civilian and sworn officers positions. Given that net reductions in our police force have always been through insufficient additions to replace attrition (rather than layoffs), the failure to publish the cumulative figure limited the public’s ability to see the declining total.
The size of the police force when the City promoted passage of Measure A (1% Extra City Sales Tax) was estimated at about 800 officers, due to budget cuts in the wake of the Great Recession: “After the reductions spanning several years, L.B. taxpayers ended up with 208 fewer budgeted officers” (from “LB Ran Out of Cops. How’d That Happen?”, Beachcomber).
Also see: “See Number Of Police Officers Proposed By Mgm’t/Mayor For Neighborhood Responses/Citywide Deployment In FY19 Budget”, LBReport.com (for details on the number of deployable officers versus those contracted over to security at the port, airport, and other entities)
“Long Beach Had But No Longer Has An LBPD Field Anti-Gang Unit. How’d That Happen?”, LBReport.com
“LBPD Compensation Misinformation”, Beachcomber (for more on how the 3-year police contracts are put together in ways that reduce budgeting available for extra personnel)
FY 2026 Police Budget::
Source: 12/24/25 City Memorandum: “Late Night Belmont Shore Public Safety Plan”
644 budgeted officers – 18% vacancy rate = 528 sworn officers
The City was forced to admit to this abysmally low size of the police force in response to Councilwoman Duggan’s request for more public safety resources to address criminality in and around 2nd Street in Belmont Shore. To justify the denial of extra police resources, the total number of sworn officers (so rarely mentioned in recent years) was cited.
