City Manager Andrew Neiditz’s 2008 budget calls for eliminating neighborhood policing in the Tillicum-Woodbrook and Lake City districts.

“That’s hard for me to buy,” said David Anderson, president of the Tillicum-Woodbrook Neighborhood Association. “It’s a major step backwards.”

Lakewood’s program deploys police officers dedicated to work exclusively on neighborhood crime problems. They partner with unarmed community services officers who help identify problems and mobilize citizen support for crime prevention. Tacoma and other cities have similar programs.

In Lakewood, the neighborhood teams have helped reduce crime rates – sometimes dramatically – in the Tillicum-Woodbrook and Ponders-Springbrook neighborhoods over the past five years.

Officials credit the teams with sweeping prostitutes off Pacific Highway Southwest in Ponders and clearing criminals out of Woodbrook apartments and mobile home parks.

But the program has developed staffing problems. Neighborhood policing is “spread too thin” and needs to retrench, Neiditz said.

He said his budget will pay for two-member teams – a neighborhood police officer and a community service officer – in each of four city policing districts: Northeast Lakewood, Lakeview, Ponders-Springbrook and Oakbrook in north Lakewood.

The teams will get support from code enforcement, public works and other city departments to help with blight, traffic and other problems that surface.

But the proposal leaves two districts without any neighborhood policing: Lake City and Tillicum-Woodbrook. The areas will still be covered by routine police patrols and additional operations if major crimes occur, said police Chief Larry Saunders.

One reason for the change, he said, is that crime rates in Lake City have remained low.

Larry Woods, president of the Lake City Neighborhood Association, agreed. But if other districts get more intense neighborhood policing, criminals might make a push into Lake City, he said.

“We’ve had good relations with the police,” he said. “I wish they would sit down with the neighborhood association and go over it.”

Another reason for the shift, Saunders said, is that anti-crime programs have been successful in taming Tillicum-Woodbrook, where economic redevelopment is starting to bloom.

He said it’s time to refocus on the other districts, especially Northeast Lakewood and Lakeview, which have major gang problems.

The integrated plan is similar to a popular program Tacoma started in four neighborhoods last year. Residents were mobilized. Tacoma police worked to reduce crime while other city departments zeroed in on code enforcement, cleaning up blighted properties and other problems.

Tacoma officials are considering ways to expand their program so other neighborhoods aren’t left out.

The trouble in Lakewood is that two neighborhoods could suddenly find themselves on the outside looking in.

Terry Love, president of the Northeast Neighborhood Association, said he doesn’t want Lake City and Tillicum-Woodbrook excluded. Neighborhood policing should occur “across the board,” he said.

Saunders said he would like to staff each of the six districts with a neighborhood cop and a community services officer. Last year, the chief got authorization to staff all six with community services officers, but he never was able to get enough money to fund more than three cops until next year’s budget. The fourth officer in 2008 is supported by an ongoing state grant.

Since June, he said, only two neighborhood police officers have been working because of a transfer.

City Councilman Walter Neary said the council had no idea.

“To learn that we had two for a city of 60,000, it’s ridiculous,” he said.

Neary said the city manager is dismantling a successful crime-fighting program.

Neiditz disagreed: “The intent is to get the program right.”

Saunders said the refocusing is necessary to get a police officer and a community services officer working together full-time.

He said the current model of three police officers working with six community services officers in six districts isn’t working. One cop transferred out after burning out from covering two high-crime districts at once. Neighborhood community services officers aren’t qualified or allowed by law to carry the entire load in each district, he said.

Saunders said he requested two new neighborhood police officers for 2008 but that Neiditz turned him down, citing budget concerns.

The city manager said he’s proposing a hold-the-line budget for next year that will increase between 5 and 6 percent.

Major drivers of the budget increases include salaries, wages, benefits and health care costs for employees, police overtime and an increase in dispatching expenses.

Police costs make up nearly half of the city’s operating budget, about $18.5 million of a $38 million spending plan.

For neighborhood activists, the concern is more about morale than money.

Love said that when the Northeast district had a two-member policing team, many citizens mobilized and volunteered to become block watchers.

Then their cop was spread thin to cover one and eventually two other districts. The officer wasn’t as accessible. Interest waned. Residents also became confused because of turnover among the community service officers.

“We’ve gone through three or four (community services officers),” Love said. “Now we don’t know what they’re supposed to do.”

Neiditz said that until economic growth takes off, his annual budget proposals will remain lean. Despite some redevelopment and business growth, Lakewood isn’t close to getting the sales tax revenue that comparably sized cities in the region get.

Eliminating two neighborhood community services officer positions will save about $50,000. The savings are lower because one will transfer to court security.

Ultimately, it will be up to the City Council to decide whether to accept the revised neighborhood plan.

“I don’t want us to sacrifice policy so we can say our city budget only went up 6 percent,” said Councilwoman Helen McGovern.

Love, from Northeast Lakewood, said money should be reallocated to cover all neighborhood policing functions.

“We’ve seen it work, and we’ve seen it not work,” he said. “We want it to work.”

Council Meeting

WHAT: Lakewood City Council will discuss the 2008 police budget.

WHEN: 6 p.m., Oct. 15

WHERE: City Hall, 6000 Main St. S.W. The meeting will be held on the second floor.