The San Diego Police Department is short by over 200 officers, despite the fact that nearby departments are at or close to full strength. The disparity has caused the city to try and find out why police are leaving the department, and to develop methods of recruiting new officers and retaining those they have. At present, the department is short some 239 officers, nearly 12% of the total force.
Although the crime rate in San Diego is still low despite the vacancies, some efforts have suffered. Response times are longer than usual, investigators have exceptionally heavy workloads, and proactive policing measures have declined. The future looks even worse, since approximately 600 of the 1,801 officers in the department are eligible for retirement in 2022, and applications have dropped 36%.
The city is trying to solve the problems in both the short and long term. First, officials added $300,000 to San Diego’s budget to pay overtime when officers work longer shifts to cover personnel shortages. They also plan to negotiate pay hikes with the police union later this year, since San Diego’s sworn officers are among the lowest-paid in California. Finally, the City Council wants a study done to find out why police are leaving in the first place.
Since this issue affects everyone, officials might work with a newsletter printing company to create a letter for the entire city, discussing the issues and their approach to solving them.
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