Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco tomorrow will request the Board of Supervisors’ authorization to hike the blanket rate charged to 16 cities and other contract entities for the use of patrol deputies and support services associated with operations.
The sheriff is seeking a 2.45% increase in the base hourly rate charged for the use of patrol personnel. The augmentation, which officials said is needed to recoup higher costs incurred by the department, would be retroactive to July 1, 2023.
Under the revised rate schedule, the cost of a sheriff’s patrol deputy would rise from $209.35 per hour to $214.47 per hour.
“Each year, the Sheriff’s Department does an analysis of just its patrol operations and determines real costs effectively through its sheer size,” according to an agency statement posted to the board’s agenda. “The fully supported contract law enforcement rates include the entire systemic costs involving the running of a (law enforcement) department.”
Last year’s hike was 1.63%, driven in part by greater “pension obligations and salary increases” obtained by the Riverside Sheriffs Association for the several thousand deputies it represents, and the costs of
increased pensions and salary hikes for executive-level personnel represented by the Law Enforcement Management Unit.