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After budget cuts last spring forced PCC’s Police and Safety Services to reduce the number of cadets on campus, the police budget has been restored to its previous level.”As far as security on campus, we are operating with the same number of personnel as last year,” said PCC Chief of Police Peter Michael.

“Typically between 16 to 21 cadets are on campus each day,” Michael said. “We reduced it down to between seven and nine cadets from January to June.”

For years, campus police ran on a tight budget. Michael noted that the police department’s budget has not been formally adjusted since 1998, and the department has been over budget every year as a result. According to Michael, it became apparent last school year that the college was not going to get the money it normally did from the state because of California’s fiscal problems.

The Police Department was the first to make adjustments, and in January took $498,000 in cuts to try and stay within budget. The measures included printing on both sides of office paper and cutting the number of cadets on campus.

Since then, campus police has returned to its old budget, according to Michael, with the help of Interim Vice President of Administrative Services Richard Van Pelt.

“Dr. Van Pelt recognized that we can’t afford to operate with the small numbers,” said Michael. “He looked at the budget, and advised to bring the cadets back, because safety is first.”

Van Pelt said that additional funds for the Police Department were gained through an increase in campus parking fees a few years ago.

“That money [from parking fees] was specifically intended to increase security and services,” Van Pelt said.

Chief Michael noted that over half of the money from the $64 parking permits pays for cadets and officers.

In the 2009-10 budget adopted by the Board of Trustees on Sept. 16, an estimated $6.3 million has been appropriated for campus police. This includes police and safety, hazardous materials, transportation, gasoline, maintenance, and the Livescan fingerprinting service.

While Police and Safety Services has returned to its old budget, there are some areas where the department has maintained cutbacks. Office hours still are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Until May, they were from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Campus police has made cuts in other areas that don’t directly affect security, such as supplies and maintenance. The department is also looking at innovative ways to save money.

“We are taking a good hard look at our operation, and trying to identify where we can be more efficient through technology,” said Michael.

Currently, the department has “to pay someone to sit at the front counter to do nothing more than hand out keys,” said Michael.

Under a new system, individuals could check out and return keys from an electronic key box.

Another potential source of revenue for campus police is the Livescan fingerprinting service, which produces most of its revenue from non-PCC customers.

Besides fingerprinting, Livescan has expanded to offer services for notaries, child ID’s, passports, and soon, DMV registration.

“It will truly be a great service for the Pasadena community, not just PCC and CEC students,” said Michael.

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