The Long Beach Police Department’s proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year includes cuts to staffing and a reduction in overtime funding, but also investments to continue improving public safety in the city.
The department’s approximately $344 million funding request was discussed during this week’s City Council budget hearing.
Public safety remains one of the city’s top priorities, officials said, but as Long Beach faces fiscal challenges in this upcoming budget, services may be impacted. Last week, the City Council discussed the Fire Department’s proposed budget, which includes cuts that could potentially result in increased response times for emergencies.
The Police Department is facing similar difficulties, Chief Wally Hebeish said during the Tuesday, Aug. 18, council meeting. The department was asked to make about $19.3 million in cuts, which will include a reduction of 63.47 full-time equivalent employees and a 25% decline in overtime funding, Hebeish said, making this the most significant single-year workforce reduction in recent police department history.
The department’s response to these fiscal constraints has been guided by operational priorities, Hebeish said, including preserving responsiveness to calls for service, maintaining investigative capacity, sustaining compliance with legislative mandates, advancing workforce development, and building readiness for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“Every recommendation we’re presenting was developed with immense thought and consideration,” Hebeish said during Tuesday’s council meeting. “The weight of these cuts will have an impact on our department and our employees, but also service delivery to our community and partner city departments.”
The police chief also shared some of the department’s accomplishments over the past year, including responding to more than 187,000 calls for service, or about 512 calls daily, on average. This is in addition to the department’s proactive policing, keeping public gatherings safe, addressing quality of life complaints, and dealing with increased staffing requests for special events, Hebeish said.
Police officers have responded to Priority 1 emergencies in an average of 5.6 minutes or fewer, Hebeish said. Priority 1 calls are potentially life-threatening emergencies, such as a shooting, domestic violence, or a robbery in progress.
LBPD also made progress reducing crime through 2025, he said, with an overall decrease of 17.4% compared to 2024. Murders decreased by 23.7%, shootings decreased by 36% and violent crime decreased by 9.2%.
Hebeish then summarized the budget changes necessary to meet the $19.3 million in strategic reductions; however, some of the proposed cuts will be restored based on Mayor Rex Richardson’s recommendations.
“We met this savings target by reallocating resources to protect core priorities,” Hebeish said, “specifically emergency response and calls for service, priority investigative functions, and essential administrative operations.”
The department focused cost reductions on vacant positions to help minimize the impact on police staff, according to the budget presentation. The budget reflects deliberate, targeted decisions rather than blanket across-the-board cuts, he said.
The Business Operations Bureau, for example, will reduce an assistant administrative analyst and a clerk typist, and eliminate a recently added police officer position from the Wellness Division. In the Strategic Initiatives Bureau, there will be a reduction of one assistant administrative analyst and a part-time intern in the Office of Constitutional Policing.
Administrative capacity reduced for employee wellness, finance and field technology, and policy could potentially increase processing times in finance and policy oversight functions, according to the budget presentation.
In the Support Bureau, the department will eliminate four police officer and 1.78 professional staff positions, according to the presentation. This includes one officer from the SWAT canine unit, one officer from the Basic Academy staff, and one sergeant and one officer from the Innovative Training Unit. The department will also transfer funding saved by removing one clinician in the jail to partially offset a sergeant position overseeing police officers assigned to the Mental Evaluation and Quality of Life teams. Funding will also be reallocated for four special service officers in the jail transport team from the general fund to the city’s Measure A fund.
The Community Services Bureau will reduce 15 sworn and nine professional staff positions, according to the budget presentation, reducing eight vacant community services assistant positions, which respond to lower-priority calls. There will be a reduction of six vacant police officer positions for the Motor Detail, shifting additional traffic enforcement efforts to remaining motor officers and tasking patrol with additional traffic enforcement duties, Hebeish said. There will also be a reduction of one sergeant and six police officers from the Quality of Life team.
Reducing and reorganizing community-facing, non-emergency response services may increase the burden on calls for service response and community services, according to the budget presentation.
For the Investigations Bureau, there will be a reduction of 22 sworn positions and 7.76 professional staff. This would eliminate 16 vacant detective positions and two vacant sergeant positions. With fewer detectives, Hebeish said, the bureau will have to manage increased caseloads, resulting in higher investigative thresholds and delays in solving cases. The department did preserve the Sex Crimes Detail by reallocating four officers from the Detective and Special Investigations divisions.
Finally, in the Patrol Bureau, the department will reduce 17 police officer and two professional staff positions, putting pressure on an “already strained workforce” and potentially impacting response times, Hebeish said. The reduction of patrol officers will be across all four divisions.
The budget proposal does include a targeted restoration of one sergeant and four officers to patrol, dedicated to emergency response, calls for service and proactive policing in the tidelands, such as the Pike Outlets, Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, the Queen Mary, and beaches and bays, according to the budget presentation.
“Beyond positions, this budget reduces general fund overtime by $2.68 million, a 25% reduction across all noncontract divisions,” Hebeish said. “This overtime has historically allowed us to backfill staffing gaps and reduce critical investigative backlogs.”
Despite the cuts, LBPD will have one-time funds to invest in technology and frontline support.
One-time funding will help replace a helicopter for the Air Support Unit, which is partially funded by $5 million in available state grant funds, and any funding gap will be debt-financed. Recruit Academy Class 101 will be funded by one-time Measure A funds of about $7 million to ensure officers are fully trained and deployable by the 2028 Olympics. The mayor’s recommendations include investing $795,000 in police officer overtime for a variety of specialized services.
There will also be investments in the department’s critical facilities and forensic capacity. This includes bond funds that will help complete the construction of a $22 million crime laboratory, 125 Elm St., to examine and analyze crime evidence related to firearms, controlled substances, toxicology, and latent prints; the $5 million project to build a DNA laboratory adjacent to the crime lab; and critical repairs to damaged HVAC infrastructure at the East Division Patrol Substation, includes replacing chilled water lines, condensing units and fan coils.
Estimated total revenues in the financial summary are about $51 million and total expenses are about $344 million.
“While the proposed cuts are significant, the LBPD is comprised of determined and dedicated police officers and professional staff who will continue doing tomorrow exactly what we’re doing today,” Hebeish said, “keeping Long Beach safe and moving our Police Department forward.”