Long Beach leaders press police, fire chiefs on staffing, new tech and rescue coverage during FY‑26 budget hearing

Long Beach Police Chief Heebisch and Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan presented separate FY‑26 budget briefings to the City Council on Aug. 13, describing initiatives intended to maintain emergency response capacity while addressing staffing shortages, technology upgrades and rising emergency‑medical workload.

The city’s police chief said the department is managing about 100,000 calls for service a year and asked council to support several one‑time investments for violent‑crime response and modernized operations. “When I say Long Beach has the best police department in the nation, I mean it,” Chief Heebisch said, then reviewed outcomes the department reported through June 30: property crime down 23.6%, murders down 27.8% and shootings down 29.2% year‑to‑date. He described proposed one‑time requests including $1.3 million for the high‑crime focus team, $1.5 million to expand a real‑time crime center, $1.5 million to replace helicopter camera systems and $300,000 to start a drone‑for‑patrol pilot.

Heebisch outlined operational changes the department will make in FY‑26: reorganizing special investigations into a consolidated “societal crime”…