Saving Our Police

Public safety remains of utmost priority and even though crime rates are low today, our police department is being stretched beyond belief. The job market for police officers is very competitive right now nationwide. San Diego has been losing our public safety personnel to other cities and counties because of high demand and the City's inability to compete. From the wage freezes to pension issues, compared with other jurisdictions, San Diego is not offering the attractive salaries and benefits other agencies are - thus contributing to the losses we are experiencing. In addition, because of the high price of homes in the San Diego region, many of our officers must live in distant places like Riverside County and Imperial County. When a position becomes available in Hemet and an officer already lives in Temecula, he or she will usually go for the 10 minute commute instead of the hour each-way commute they have while working for San Diego.

Our focus now has been to hold the line on this year's budget and restore our City's fiscal health. Part of a multi-year process, restoring fiscal stability in our City and making fixes to our pension system is priority one. We are on our way toward fiscal recovery with an eye on providing the very best of services to the people of San Diego.

Among my recommendations for the FY2007 proposed budget was a plan to move 30 sworn/uniformed police officers doing desk-type jobs back into the field where they are needed.

Sometimes it's important we think outside the box to create solutions that help reward and retain our officers while giving them other ways to increase their take home pay.

In an effort to retain our valued San Diego Police Department employees, Councilmember Tony Young joined me in offering some solutions to help both retain our existing officers and to give them more opportunities while improving public safety in our City. View our Police staffing memo (PDF: 300K). The plan gives officers an opportunity to earn more money while at the same time increasing public safety in our neighborhoods and communities - without raising taxes. In fact, what this plan does is to allow police officers an opportunity to earn more money on their off hours and to reward those who have been with the police department in an effort to keep them from leaving.

Councilmember Young and I urge our colleagues to insist on these proposals as a minimum for our police department.

On Friday, Mayor Jerry Sanders held a press conference to discuss our recommendation of transferring sworn police officers from desk jobs to patrolling the streets and hiring 30 civilian staff as their replacement for the desk jobs. My visit to Sacramento on City business precluded my being there to personally thank Mayor Sanders and show my support.

I am pleased that Mayor Sanders supports this recommendation and applaud him for wanting to see this suggestion implemented. It is a sound fiscal decision that protects the public, strengthens public safety and helps the department. I support his position and his proposed budget in general. We, along with our colleagues, share the goal of restoring the City's financial health. View an article that appeared in the Union-Tribune on the topic. You can also view a fact sheet (PDF: 160K) produced by the Mayor's office for additional information.