TO: RULES AND OPEN FROM: Councilmember Davis
GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE Councilmember Jimenez
Councilmember Cohen
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: September 7, 2022
Approved Date 09/1/2022
ACCELERATING SJPD STAFFING LEVELS
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Direct the City Manager’s Office to conduct an analysis of police overtime spending that includes existing authorized sworn staffing levels, vacancies, recruit academies, and performance targets to determine a goal for the appropriate level of officer staffing and overtime expenditures that will guide future budget development. The analysis should include review of current and the past three years spending to provide a comprehensive picture and provide recommendations for staffing additions that can be made starting in FY 22-23. Our goal should be to reduce mandatory overtime so that officer stress and fatigue is reduced and to provide enough officers for our city’s public safety needs.
2. Direct the City Manager’s Office to develop a workplan with goals and timeline to drive the acceleration of police staffing levels while reducing mandatory overtime. a. Bring to Council no later than the end of November 2022 a status report of the City Manager’s Office efforts on this initiative.
b. Bring regular reports to the Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee, the timing and content of which should be determined by committee members, on progress towards goals.
BACKGROUND:
Public safety is not only one of our city’s core services; it is our most important responsibility.
We are in critical need of more police officers. That is why we are asking the City Manager and the Budget Office to think about how we achieve the levels of staffing that we need to provide the services our residents deserve.
According to an auditor’s report on March 18, 2022, improving police overtime controls is an open recommendation. Unfortunately, because of low officer counts, overtime has been a necessity. According to a most recent city services report, there are only 934 street-ready officers available to handle 611,100 emergency calls annually. We have the lowest authorized sworn RULES COMMITTEE: 09/07/22
ITEM: C.1
RULES AND OPEN GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
September 7, 2022
Subject: Accelerating SJPD Staffing Levels
staff per 100,000 residents compared to other large cities in California. Our police department has resorted to overtime to overcome our chronic staffing shortages, using tools such as pay cars and asking officers to volunteer for overtime shifts. Even worse, many officers are subject to mandatory overtime. This leaves our officers exhausted - burned out at times - and stretched to respond to priority 2, 3 and 4 calls. They are often unable to spend time with their families or take needed vacations.
Our residents are asking their leaders to respond with a plan of action. We know that some overtime is inevitable, but we would like to find the appropriate balance between staffing our police force and using overtime. Fiscally, the City of San José currently spends about $45M annually on overtime for police officers, of which nearly $20M backfills for vacancies that the department is filling through laterals and academies. This level of overtime is not sustainable over the long term. We are asking staff to determine the optimal staffing/overtime level for a modern police force that can respond to our public safety needs.
We recognize that some amount of overtime is necessary in the operation of any large police department. Officers need time to complete police reports, and often must stay on duty beyond their normal shift when they are completing a call for service. Once we get a better idea of the optimal staffing level, we are asking the City Manager’s Office and the Budget Office to determine the pragmatic amount of overtime for SJPD Officers that the City of San José should include in its budgeting process. As we work towards this level of overtime, the savings we realize can be used to add full time officers.
Lastly, we are asking staff to develop a workplan and timeline to guide the City as we work to meet the staffing and overtime goals of SJPD. We recognize that it will take some time to bring people into our department, either through the police academy, or by hiring laterally from other departments. As this plan is developed and implemented, there should be regular reports to the Public Safety, Finance, and Strategic Support (PSFSS) Committee and periodic updates to the entire council.
The authors recognize that while in the middle of negotiations with the POA, there may be challenges in executing this request. Therefore, this process should be implemented while also giving the space that is required to successfully negotiate a contract for the current year.
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’s staff, concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member's staff.