SAN JOSE — In its latest cutback to keep cops available to respond to the most urgent emergency calls, the San Jose Police Department on Wednesday announced plans to redeploy dozens of officers from investigative and specialized units to bolster its undermanned patrol force, and proposed mandatory overtime to fill in the gaps.
Police brass issued a memo stating effective March 14, the next scheduled shift change in the department, officers and supervisors will be reassigned to patrol from specialized units, including gang suppression, traffic enforcement, field training and recruitment. Investigative units that cover homicide, tech crimes, gangs, robbery and missing persons will also lose officers.
The news comes a week after the department announced that the 23 officers and four sergeants in its vaunted Metro special-enforcement unit, which tackled everything from drugs, prostitution, high-risk warrants and gang crimes, were being temporarily reassigned starting Feb. 1 to only work street patrols. Even when Metro is re-formed in March, it will shrink by six officers and one sergeant.
The department is also pushing mandatory overtime for patrol officers, which was instituted on an as-needed basis last summer but would be more enshrined under a proposal included in the memo. Such a move, however, is subject to negotiations and approval with the San Jose Police Officers' Association.
The developments are a continuation of the department's struggles to field a patrol force of 492 officers, despite being about 50 people short, with the rest made up with overtime. Even with the additional 24 officers who will be redeployed, that will only bring patrol to minimal staffing levels, meaning the overtime equivalent of about four dozen officers will still be needed to round out daily shifts.
SJPD currently has 997 sworn officers, which is more than 100 less than its authorized strength and marks the first time since the mid-1980s the entire force has dipped below 1,000. Department projections in November predicted that would happen midyear, but a surge of retirements and resignations so far this year accelerated the pace.
And only 883 officers can actually hit the street after accounting for disability, modified duty, military leave, and those still in training. A confluence of baby boomer retirements and resignations — spurred in part by political acrimony over pension and disability benefits — have left the department nearly 30 percent smaller than it was in 2008, when a crashing economy prompted a wave of austerity measures.
Officer James Gonzales, vice president of the SJPOA, said the reductions in specialized policing are an ongoing reminder of the effects of pension-reform measures in driving officers both out of and away from SJPD.
Mayor Sam Liccardo, who championed Measure B as a necessary move to balance the city budget, acknowledged the police struggles and directed focus on ongoing negotiations with the police union.
Some help is on the way in the form of police academies, but those numbers have been modest, with recent classes of 23 and 22 cadets, and a crop of 25 spots in the next. The department's bleak staffing projections are predicated on classes at least twice that size.
Garcia said the chipping away of manpower has left the department at a tipping point, and urged swift negotiations toward an agreement to stem the tide of departing cops.
Effective March 14, the San Jose Police Department will reduce several specialized and investigative units to bolster its patrol force.