TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: John Incontro, Police Chief
BY: Aaron Blonde, Police Commander
DATE: February 11, 2026
SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF AGREEEMENTS BETWEEN THE CITY OF SAN MARINO, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF’S
DEPARTMENT, AND RIO HONDO COLLEGE FOR POLICE
RECRUIT ACADEMY TRAINING
STRATEGIC PLAN CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
Efficient, Responsive, and Effective City Services
Safe Community
Fiscally Responsible and Transparent City Government
BACKGROUND
The San Marino Police Department is responsible for maintaining adequate staffing levels to ensure safety and preserve public trust. The Police Department is currently experiencing sworn staffing vacancies due to retirements and normal attrition within the profession. Maintaining adequate staffing levels is critical to ensuring officer safety, minimizing mandatory overtime, and sustaining community-oriented policing efforts. Recently, the Police Department had as many as seven sworn vacancies; however, two positions were filled by recruit applicants, reducing the vacancies to five. There is currently one additional recruit, and four lateral applicants in various stages of the background process. The Police Department Recruiting Team continues to pursue interested applicants (recruit and lateral police officer) to fill current, as well as anticipated vacancies.
Newly hired police recruits are required to successfully complete a certified police academy program in accordance with the State of California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). All police Tony Chou, Mayor
Calvin Lo, Vice Mayor
Hunter Chang, Council Member
John Chou, Council Member
Gretchen Shepherd Romey, Council Member
recruits must successfully complete a basic police academy prior to assuming sworn duties. The timely placement of recruits into an academy is essential to reducing the length of vacancies and accelerating the transition of candidates from hire to field deployment. The length of a full-time California POST Basic Police Academy is approximately six months. Once the recruit has successfully completed the POST Basic Police Academy, they transition to the San Marino Police Department Field Training Program. The length of the Field Training Program is an additional five to six months, depending upon the trainee’s absorption of the training material, application to real-life scenarios, and the ability to demonstrate competence as solo police officer.
Both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Rio Hondo College Police Academies are state-certified training institutions that provide comprehensive law enforcement instruction, including criminal law, patrol procedures, defensive tactics, firearms training, and community policing. The academies have a long-standing history of training recruits for jurisdictions throughout the region. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has had formal training facilities for nearly 90 years, while the Rio Hondo Police Academy has had recruit training for over 60 years.
DISCUSSION
By entering into agreements with both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Rio Hondo College for police academy training, it will ensure that we comply with state-mandated training and certification requirements, provide consistent, high-quality training aligned with best practices, support recruitment efforts by ensuring academy placement and availability, and ultimately fill vacancies.
Under the agreements, the City will sponsor a police recruit candidate who has successfully completed the San Marino Police Department hiring process.
The academies will be responsible for instruction, evaluation, and certification, while the City will retain responsibility for employment, compensation, and performance management. The City is also responsible for providing all uniforms and required equipment, and the recruit will remain an employee of the City of San Marino. Utilizing these state certified academies will ensure professional training, reduce liability, maintain accountability, align with modern policing practices, and establish an efficient transition to the San Marino Police Field Training Program.
There are a few of notable differences between the two academies and what they are able to offer, which is reflected in the cost. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and is able to not only offer superior training by seasoned deputies, but also has multiple training facilities, with their primary location being centrally located in the City of Whittier. The size of the Sheriff’s Department allows them to run multiple recruit classes per year, typically eight, with up to 100 recruits per class. The Sheriff’s Academy generally operates Monday through Friday, during normal business hours, except during night-time scenarios. The Sheriff’s Department currently allows a maximum of two police recruits from each participating agency, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Rio Hondo Police Academy is far smaller and operates on the campus of Rio Hondo College. The Rio Hondo Police Academy staff includes dedicated current and retired peace officers, administrators, faculty (instructors), and support staff. The Rio Hondo Police Academy is also located in the City of Whittier.
Their academy operates on modified days and hours during the week, typically Wednesday through Sunday, to accommodate the training staff. Rio Hondo generally runs two academy classes per year, with about 50 recruits per class.
The Rio Hondo Academy does not limit the number of recruits from each participating agency; however, they do cap the number once the maximum recruits per class is reached.
FISCAL IMPACT & PROCUREMENT REVIEW
The cost between Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Rio Hondo varies slightly, for the reasons noted above. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has established a cost-recovery rate for Fiscal Year 2025-26 of $7,832 per recruit. Rio Hondo College charges approximately $4,083 for tuition and fees. Both academies require the City to provide the recruit with specific uniforms and equipment, which generally equates to an additional $3,000.
Based upon current staffing levels, we estimate a total of five recruit candidates attending the academy during the 2025-26 to 2026-27 Fiscal Years. The estimated fiscal impact of sending five recruits to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Academy would be approximately $39,160. The same number of recruits would cost approximately $20,415 at Rio Hondo College. This does not consider the additional cost of uniforms and equipment.
Police Academy Training Cost Uniforms /
Equip.
Total Per
Recruit
L.A.S.D. $7,832 $3,000 $10,832
Rio Hondo $4,083 $3,000 $7,083
Future expenditures will be dependent upon the number of vacancies, number of applicants being processed, and approved funding.
These contracts shall remain in place until terminated by the City.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney's office has reviewed the agreement as to form.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council approve entering into agreements with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Rio Hondo College for police academy training of recruit police officer candidates, subject to final language approval by the City Manager and City Attorney and authorize the City Manager to execute the agreements. If the City Council concurs with staff’s recommendation, an appropriate motion would be:
“I move to approve entering into agreements with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Rio Hondo College for police academy training of recruit police officer candidates, subject to final language approval by the City Manager and City Attorney and authorize the City Manager to execute the agreements.”
ATTACHMENTS
None