There is much to be concerned about in San Jose these days. We have seen this before in the early seventies, when the vaunted SJPD of today was not quite that organization. It was undertrained and poorly led. Its relationship with the minority community was fragile and the composition of the force did not reflect the makeup of our city. That all changed with the selection of Joe McNamara as chief in 1976, and his particular brand of leadership.
McNamara led. In his reaching out to the neighborhoods of San Jose and the grasping control of promotions, discipline and assignments, he was strongly supported by my predecessor, Janet Gray Hayes, and me. The department got better, much better—we added officers and we added credibility.
That was then and this is now. Crime statistics are going in the wrong direction. Gang violence is worse. We are becoming a coarse and more dangerous city, and it is the poorest neighborhoods that feel this the most.
There have been two chiefs since McNamara left in 1991. Rob Davis, who is currently at the helm, has good ideas and a positive image in the community. But last week’s council meeting was sobering. There, the professional opinions of the chief and the strong feelings of the mayor and the downtown council representative were blithely set aside by the council majority who overruled them and voted to keep nightclub outdoor seating open until 2 a.m. and late closing until 3 a.m. Against the solid advice were the lobbying efforts of some Baathist remnants of the Gonzales regime. You wonder how the neighbors of Alum Rock, Almaden and Evergreen feel about having 20 officers assisting at the closing of one club—as I have seen firsthand—while calls for service go unanswered in their communities. It was a colossal statement.
But we are indeed in a crisis in the larger picture, with rising violent crime, increasing gang activity, and the fact we have only 1,400 officers in a growing city of one million. This and the obvious budget problems at City Hall have many professionals very worried. Chief Davis has suggested adding 500 new officers. Much of this was capsulized in an op-ed Monday by Bobby Lopez, President of the Police Officers Association (POA), who chastised the mayor and city hall for a lack of leadership. Unmentioned was the Faustian bargain that the POA made with beleaguered former Mayor Ron Gonzales that vastly increased the pay and benefits of the Police Department, and caused a financial firestorm. Of such decisions are crises made.
Now is a time for setting aside old enmities, including the tit for tat between the mayor’s office and Councilwoman Nora Campos, and moving toward a solution. In 1983, we sat down with business and community groups and funded the hiring of 100 police officers from the Business License Tax; a safe city is a good place to do business. That was true then and is true now. Such a plan is needed again. We need the leadership of City Hall to accomplish this, and particularly the mayor. I believe that it is forthcoming.
Tom,
If our police officers got a “Faustian bargain” and are in your opinion earning way too much for the job they do, what do you consider the proper salary for their job? You must have some number in mind if you think they are making too much now. How much more, if anything, do they earn compared to the surrounding cities in Santa Clara County? I don’t know the answer to these questions, but it is important information to know in light of your blog. It seems if we are 500 officers short, the city is easily saving $50 million dollars a year compared to other big cities.
Dave,
Regarding pay and living in an expensive area. The merc just is a promo piece on how san jose and san fran are stealing away officers from New York. The officers in New York are paid 25k to 60K a year.
New York is much more expensive area to live. And our officers being paid six figures in a very sleepy boring town is a good deal. So perhaps they (or you) should get over it.
Tom. Excellent points today.
In a city with a population approaching one million residents we still have the same sized Police force as 20 years ago.
The fact that the council thinks serving drinks on San Jose’s sidewalks until 2:00 AM makes me wonder if this bunch understands root causes the policing problems downtown. They want to encourage affluent people to live downtown, but that’s going to be a tough sell if the council insists on making downtown Party Central.
Chief Davis wanted to close down sidewalk seating at 10 PM, but was willing to compromise on a midnight closing. But the council decided that it is good policy to sell liquor on it’s sidewalks until 2:00 AM.
Go figure.
Make no mistake, these sidewalks “cafes” are not interested in selling lattes or cheeseburgers. Most of the night time sidewalks sales are drinks, drinks, and more drinks.
Does this make any sense?
If we need more officers look to how SF is doing it. Pay the entry level officers less for their first 5 years; then move them up the scale.
Most officers will stay on the job if they stay with it for 5 years. Training new officers is both time consuming and expensive; especially when they leave the job after only a few years.
Also, regarding the large amount of officers retiring at 50. Offer them a combo package. pay them both their retirement and half of their normal pay to stay on for a few more years (this is already done at the very high level our former chiefs get their retirments and current pay elsewhere!).
You will both get more officers and keep the well seasoned vets that are leaving to protect golf courses!
#3
They want to encourage affluent people to live downtown…
Generally speaking, affluent people are usually intelligent, and, usually, intelligent people do not want to live near an airport.
#2 Nypd Blues,
Unfortunately, your figure of 25-60k per year at NYPD is misleading.
Per the NYPD website, an officer with 6 years on makes at least $77,000 per year. In addition, they get unlimited sick leave with full pay, 27 vacation days after just 5 years, paid medical plans, Deferred Compensation Plan, 401K and I.R.A., and can retire after just 20 years of service with no minimum age for retirement (ie start at 21, retire at 41), and an Annual $12,000 Variable Supplement Fund (Upon retirement)
Annual banking of $12,000 Variable Supplement Fund after 20 years of service (If not retiring), NYPD also offers college tuition to it’s officers to get advanced college degrees, and even gives officers a certain number of paid days off per semester to work on school. Lastly per capita New York PD has over 5 officers per 1000 residents and San Jose has just over 1 officer per 1000 residents.
The devil is in the details. NYPD officers are very, very well compensated in ways that SJPD officers are not. True, their base salary is less, but those are some very valuable benefits they get. Just the unlimited paid sick leave and retiring at 41 alone are amazing, let alone having almost 5 times as many officers per capita than San Jose. By the way, New York City is not the dangerous place it use to be, in fact it ranks right up there with San Jose as one of the safest large cities in the US.
Here is the direct link to the NYPD website if you want to verify any of this information.
http://www.nypd2.org/html/recruit/salary.html
Although SJPD advertised itself in New York, how many officers actually have been hired? I don’t know the answer to that.
Yo.. i have a question. Why is the police presence downtown considered “overtime”. If the need is there week after week, month after month, year after year, why aren’t the shifts assigned accordingly? Why are we paying “overtime” for what should be considered normal policing by the department?
Dre, being a San Jose cop is apparently just another free ride government job. They get paid overtime because they lobbied for it. They’re protected more than they protect.
Tom,
Here is, to me, a much more frightening scenario. Goldman Sachs predicts that within 2 years oil will be a $200 a barrel. This translates into $8-10 A GALLON for gasoline. At least 75% of the police department employees live out of county due to housing prices and according to articles in the Merc the police cant get enough candidates to show up for the hiring process, thus why they have been advertising in New York. With current officers and potential candidates living so far out of the area, they are going to start dropping like flies and work for PD’s closer to home so they don’t spend $2,000 a month on gasoline. Instead of first time home loans for officers as has been discussed, they will need to consider loans to buy gas to get to work, as that is soon going to cost more than housing. We will start losing current officers that the city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars training. I think that is a real crisis brewing, and there is no answer. Also, all those police cars that get 10-11 mpg….how is the city going to possibly pay the fuel bill for that? Maybe having so few officers in San Jose will end up saving even more as there are so many less patrol cars driving around than in other big cities.
Here is the link to Goldman Sach fuel prediction http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=apQjjLKQVm_k&refer=home
I’d pay a half cent tax increase if it really went to hiring more Police Officers.
Dave,
Looking at your dome and gloom life and predictions; maybe you should go back to school and leave law enforcement. You’d be better off.
Dave,
Quit trying to drum up sympathy for cops who CHOOSE to live out of the area. They make plenty of money that they can afford to buy property in San Jose. Yes it may be a Townhouse, Yes it may not be brand new. But if they WANTED to they could live in the city.
Just because they WANT a brand new 2500 sq. foot McMansion in Los Banos or Tracy doesn’t mean that we as a community have to supplement their lifestyle choices.
We never used to need so many officers downtown. It was after the Police Auditor had the pay officer program banned, that the issue downtown started to get out of hand, and we started needing a lot of officers downtown.
“You wonder how the neighbors of Alum Rock, Almaden and Evergreen feel about having 20 officers assisting at the closing of one club—as I have seen firsthand—while calls for service go unanswered in their communities.”
Are we including the officers that sit daily in front of “Blinky’s Can’t Say” and other bars? Why aren’t these officers on the road patrolling for potentially dangerous criminal activity? In other states, this is illegal and considered entrapment. I can’t say what effect it has as anybody with any semblance of intelligence is not going to drive away with an officer parked in view. You would think one has better things to do like protecting us. Starting to feel that priorities are no longer “To Serve and Protect”. Maybe I am behind the times.
#12 NYPD Blues,
What is “dome and gloom”? I guess what you meant to spell was “doom”, which is ironic since you suggest I go back to school.
Apparently you get to live a pretty safe and insulated life. These are not predictions, they are reality. Open your eyes and look around. I guess I made my point pretty well since you could only resort with a sarcastic response.
Actually Dave I work in law enforcement and this site doesn’t have spell check.
We don’t need negative types like you in our field. Could cost good people thier lives.
Good luck in school
I agree with Dave. I’m surprised with how much hate people have for the police around here. The police salary doesn’t go has far as people would care to know. This is what I say, get rid of the police downtown (this includes cinco and fat tuesday)and lets see what happens. PLEASE put your money where your loud mouth is. I dare you. Save your money and police your own downtown.