Cadre of Administrative Reserve Personnel (CARP)

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

In early 2010, caught within a dilemma of significant budget curtailments, manpower shortages, and overtime costs, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was moving in a direction of additional jail closures and possible impacts on unincorporated patrol and other core public safety services. The Sheriff's office directed that a staffing model be implemented to minimize public safety impacts on the community and avoid potential job losses due to general fund NCC reductions. What resulted was an innovative and creative solution to the management of overtime, resulting in actual real dollar budgetary savings. Named Cadre of Administrative Reserve Personnel, this program has the recognizable acronym of CARP. Over the past 21 months, the CARP Program has become a creative and cost effective approach to budgetary management with over $50 million in realized savings since its implementation in March 2010. CARPing presently staffs 1,400 overtime shifts weekly through the movement of an equal number of personnel, thus reducing the overtime costs by $2.4 million monthly. The CARPing program has allowed the Department to meet its budgetary curtailment of $96 million annually, while still providing a necessary level of public safety services to the citizens of Los Angeles County with applicability for transferability to other County departments.