City officials remained tight-lipped Thursday about a $4.7 million plan to resolve a years-long shortage of officers and dispatchers in the San Diego Police Department, citing a need to first negotiate details with the applicable unions.
The plan was unveiled Tuesday by Mayor Kevin Faulconer, when he proposed revisions to his $3.3 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, along with recommendations for using a surplus in the current year.
The shortage of officers has been a well-known and long lasting issue, but the extent of the problem in the SDPD’s dispatch center only recently came to the public’s attention, when a couple in mid-April gave up calling 9-1-1 after several tries and drove their newborn to the hospital when he was bitten
by a dog. The baby later died.
Last fall, two callers who had intruders in their homes in separate incidents each spent several minutes on hold.
Faulconer’s plan calls for $4 million to address officer staffing and $652,000 for additional dispatchers.
Councilman Todd Gloria, the chairman of the panel’s Budget Committee, said he needs to know more about how the money will be spent.
“If you believe, as I do, that these are the two most pressing issues in the short-term for the city…to make sure that we have enough police officers to respond to calls and have enough people to pick up the phone to answer those calls, we owe it to the public to be able to explain more clearly what this looks like,” Gloria said. “It seems to me that if we’re able to affix a number to it, we know what we’re doing.”
He said he believes that “good faith efforts” are underway to resolve the recruiting and retention hurdles, but details are needed sooner rather than later.
Chief Operating Officer Scott Chadwick said negotiations are scheduled to begin in mid-June with the San Diego Police Officers Association, for the officers, and Municipal Employees Association, for the dispatchers, on how to spend the money.
According to Chief Shelley Zimmerman, as of this week, the SDPD employed 166 officers below for what it’s budgeted.
She said there are signs of a turnaround, however, in that only two of the 19 officers who have left the department to other law enforcement agencies in this fiscal year have taken new jobs with the Sheriff’s Department. Of 18 recruits who opted to go elsewhere, only three will become deputies, she said.
Those numbers are well below those of previous years, and could be a sign that a five-year contract with the SDPOA that went into effect last July is having a positive impact, according to Zimmerman.
She said most of the officers who are leaving are going to smaller agencies, many for reasons other than compensation.
In the dispatch center, there were 21 vacancies two weeks ago and now there are 18, Zimmerman said.
The dispatch shortage has become an issue in the mayoral campaign. One of Faulconer’s challengers for reelection, Ed Harris, told a City Council committee yesterday that a suspect in a crime managed to escape because a 9-1-1 caller was placed on hold for 10 minutes.
The council is scheduled to vote on adopting the budget on June 13, and it’s scheduled to take effect July 1.
— City News Service
