Public Safety Plan
The City of San Jose has one of the lowest ratios of officers to citizens for any large city in the United States. In 2001, over 20 years ago, the City of San Jose had a budget for 1,358 sworn officers. In 2021 the City of San Jose has a budget for 1,153 but 200 of these budgeted positions are vacant. Overtime is used to make up the difference and has grown 300% in the past decade. And San Jose suffers a continual brain drain of police officers seeking better pay and a better environment elsewhere while San Jose is left with dedicated but fewer experienced officers.
Our first step toward critical solutions, to the improve response times from Police and 911 calls, is to reinstate the levels of police staff at least to 2001 levels. We can evaluate further staff increases to address the ever-increasing demands of downtown San Jose. When the police can only respond to in process violent crimes and citizens with intruders in backyards are forced to wait, we clearly have an immediate issue to address.
Our second step is to reprioritize calls for service. Currently, the police are the catchall for every problem in San Jose. Our police are inundated with calls for service on: code enforcement issues, vehicle abatement, traffic enforcement, health and welfare enforcement, and mental health concerns. The police cannot be responsible for enforcing all these regulations, nor is it appropriate to have an armed officer respond to every type of call.
Calls need to be re-directed to other departments and agencies designed to address these specific issues. With increased staffing at code enforcement, vehicle abatement, as well as MCAT (the mental health arm of the police), regular officers can be left to do the actual job of policing. We can also add street foot patrol to the expanding downtown core to support residents and small businesses. And adding community policing for minor violations will free up additional police to deal with more serious crimes. Our D3 communities deserve to experience a full sense of safety.
The third step is to improve our 911 call experience. In Austin Texas callers are asked and given a choice. “What is your emergency? Do you want the fire department? An ambulance? A mental health counselor? Or the police?” This gives the front-line observer to the crisis, options on how to most effectively and directly address the crisis. If the caller is unable to assess the situation the 911 operator can make that decision.
The fourth step is to utilize technology to enforce our traffic laws. Often in downtown San Jose stop signs are considered optional, excessive speeding is the norm, and roadshows are weekly events. We have technology that we can use to help enforce road safety in our neighborhoods that does not tie us to the expense of in person enforcement.
With these four steps downtown can be the safer place we need it to be for our neighborhoods, businesses, and families.
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument?id=70064
