LOS ANGELES -- L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca will go on patrol in East Los Angeles on Friday, as part of an effort to cut down on overtime pay by deputies.
Baca will hit the streets from 2 to 10 p.m. Friday in a two-person patrol car, according to spokesman Steve Whitmore.
"He grew up in East L.A., so he knows the neighborhood," Whitmore said. "He patrolled the same streets when he was a deputy, and he was a lieutenant at the East Los Angeles Station."'
Baca has checked out equipment he will need, including body armor and a ticket book, Whitmore said.
The Sheriff's Department and several other county departments have been asked to cut 9 percent from already stretched budgets in order to make ends meet. Each eight-hour shift covered by an executive saves the county $660 in overtime that would have been paid to a deputy, Whitmore said.
Overtime by sheriff's deputies has been the subject of scrutiny by county officials since an audit found that the department had exceeded its overtime budget by an average of 104 percent for each of the last five years.
Some deputies worked more than 900 hours of overtime in a single year.
Whitmore said money also could be saved in the Sheriff's Department budget by downsizing the north facility at the Pitchess jail in Castaic.
Baca will hit the streets from 2 to 10 p.m. Friday in a two-person patrol car, according to spokesman Steve Whitmore.
"He grew up in East L.A., so he knows the neighborhood," Whitmore said. "He patrolled the same streets when he was a deputy, and he was a lieutenant at the East Los Angeles Station."'
Baca has checked out equipment he will need, including body armor and a ticket book, Whitmore said.
The Sheriff's Department and several other county departments have been asked to cut 9 percent from already stretched budgets in order to make ends meet. Each eight-hour shift covered by an executive saves the county $660 in overtime that would have been paid to a deputy, Whitmore said.
Overtime by sheriff's deputies has been the subject of scrutiny by county officials since an audit found that the department had exceeded its overtime budget by an average of 104 percent for each of the last five years.
Some deputies worked more than 900 hours of overtime in a single year.
Whitmore said money also could be saved in the Sheriff's Department budget by downsizing the north facility at the Pitchess jail in Castaic.
