Public safety -- police, fire and ambulance services -- account for nearly half the city's expenses, Brown said, and that area is tough to cut.
The burden of fuel costs has fallen disproportionately on law enforcement agencies. "If fuel prices keep going up, it's going to have a devastating impact on our ability to function," said Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation in Washington.
Governments are in a bind: "You can't increase taxes and you can't raise revenues, but you can't cut back on policing," he said.
Departments across the country have tried to come up with ways to cut fuel use. In Fairfield County, Ohio, the Sheriff's Department has bought two golf carts to replace cruisers patrolling small towns.
Some are shifting to two-officer patrol cars. In Newberry, S.C., Police Chief Jackie Swindler has ordered his officers to spend more time on foot patrol. Increased foot patrols, he said, provide better community policing and are preferable to the department's response during the oil shock of the 1970s: He recalls wrestling with a propane-powered squad car that was so small he couldn't fit anyone into the rear seat.
In sprawling El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs, Sheriff Maketa doesn't have the option of having his deputies walk their beats. His agency's fuel costs were $160,000 in 2003. This year they're $700,000, and he's expecting them to jump more next year.
Maketa initially switched to two deputies per car. Then he forbade idling vehicles. Neither led to big enough savings. This month, he decided to end all patrols to save money, though he predicts his deputies will catch fewer drunken drivers and fewer suspects with outstanding warrants. The department will reassess the end of patrols if it finds there is a serious effect on public safety.
"This decision goes against everything I believe in," Maketa said. "I believe in preventing crime. I believe in being proactive."
He said he didn't know of another agency that had taken such a dramatic step. But based on his discussions with other law officers, he expects company.
"If fuel continues on the pattern we've seen the last two years," he said, "you'll see a lot of people making a similar decision."
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nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com
