Long Beach to get more cops

The recently-passed federal crime legislation is already reaping benefits for the city of Long Beach, which recently received a $1.9 million federal grant to strengthen its police force.

Long Beach Police Chief Bill Ellis said the city will use the money to hire 20 new police officers, who will begin training Oct. 17.

"It will strengthen our ability to respond to calls for help and other services," Ellis said.

Three weeks ago Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill flew to the nation's capitol to meet with Attorney General Janet Reno and discuss the city's need for federal assistance to increase its police force.

Dell Smith, who represents Long Beach as a lobbyist in Washington D.C., also met with officials from the Department of Justice to discuss the city's need for new police officers. He said the federal government overlooked Long Beach in previous policerelated grants.

Smith said Los Angeles received money from the federal government earlier this year to assist with the LAPD, which hurt Long Beach's chance of getting more funding.

The Department of Justice used a geographic dispersion policy to determine where the money would go, and because Long Beach is near L.A., "they could not give to us and to L.A. in the same round." The same grants that funded Los Angeles and other U.S. cities will continue via the Crime Bill.

Ellis said that Long Beach will use the 20 new officers to patrol areas with the highest crime rates.

"We hope to increase our patrol visibility, and help people feel safer," he said. "Our crime rate is going down, and hopefully this will continue."

Ellis said he hopes Long Beach gets additional grants so he can hire 232 more officers by the year 2000.