Currently, the department has 2,036 budgeted positions, and about 1,890 are filled, according to staffing reports.
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“With these efforts, the Mayor is confident SDPD can reach full staffing and ensure San Diego continues to be one of the safest big cities in America,” Rachel Laing, the mayor’s communications director, said in the statement.ĭespite those actions, the department has struggled to fill nearly 150 open positions. The city of San Diego said in a statement that Mayor Todd Gloria had invested in a variety of initiatives designed to recruit and retain police officers, including a 10 percent pay raise in the most recent police contract, proposed bonuses for lateral moves from other police jurisdictions and increasing the budget for recruitment. Last summer, after a year of large-scale protests demanding police reform, the Police Executive Research Forum found that 194 police agencies saw, on average, an 18 percent increase in resignation rates and a 45 percent increase in retirement rates when comparing April 2019 through March 2020 to the same period a year later. So far this year, 200 deputies have left. In calendar year 2021, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department lost 252 sworn deputies, more than half to retirements. San Diego isn’t the only local department struggling to retain sworn staff.
It’s really toxic for our community, for community trust and relationships.” “We’re not really doing a whole lot of preventative policing or patrolling. “We’re at the point where we’re just chasing 911 calls,” Wilson said. The shortage has affected the special operations unit, which investigates violent crimes the motor unit, which provides traffic enforcement the neighborhood policing division, which coordinates homeless outreach efforts, and others. Jared Wilson, president of the San Diego Police Officers Association, said officers from specialty units across the department have been pulled back to patrol so the department can keep up with 911 calls. Relationships with community members and proactive policing efforts suffer as well, police leaders say. For Priority 1 calls - which include things like burglaries in progress, hit-and-run crashes and some serious felonies like child abuse and domestic violence - the wait time is nearly 40 minutes and has been climbing. It may take officers and deputies longer to respond to emergency calls - and some minor incidents might not get responses at all.Īccording to annual budget reports, the San Diego Police Department responds to the most serious calls, like shootings and stabbings, in about seven minutes. The staffing shortages that departures often leave in their wake can have short-term and long-term impacts on public safety, law enforcement leaders say. Adam Sharki said some officers reported during exit interviews that the negative narrative surrounding law enforcement has left them feeling demoralized and under greater scrutiny, all while they continue to face the increasing challenges of policing in a big city. Police union leaders have blamed the city’s vaccine mandate for the steep rise in departures, but there are other reasons: staffing shortages that require overtime or constrain time off, a continuing call for changes to police practices, and jobs at other departments that offer higher pay and better retirement packages.ĭepartment spokesperson Lt. In the next three months, the department would lose 65 more. Between July of last year and early March, 168 officers had left the department. It’s a spike police leaders knew was coming.įor months, officials with the San Diego department have warned that officers were leaving faster than they could be replaced, a phenomenon fueled by a storm of factors.
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