The Police Officers Association stepped up its efforts Monday to give examples of why it says the public will be less safe if officers are laid off due to the city’s budget crisis.
Releasing the first detailed report of a drive-by shooting that occurred Saturday evening at the intersection of Almaden Expressway and Coleman Avenue, the POA’s website provides a minute-by-minute account of how law enforcement responded to a male teenager being shot in the face while walking across the street with his girlfriend and their infant child.
According to the POA, the three suspects in the drive-by shooting—who fled in a brown van before trying to get away on foot—were caught by several officers aided by a police dog. All three suspects have been identified as gang members, the report states.
The focus of the POA’s report indicates that police in San Jose are already stretched dangerously thin and layoffs would only exacerbate the problem. Only one police officer was able to respond to the crime scene within seven minutes of the first of multiple 911 calls by witnesses. Were it not for the help of a witness who followed the van from the crime scene, the suspects might have been able to get away.
“At the time of the incident, there are not enough officers in the area to both respond to the scene and pursue the fleeing suspects,” the report states. “Many officers are rushing to the area from other parts of the city.”
In addition to noting that one of the officers responsible for apprehending the suspects is looking to leave San Jose due to the threat of layoffs, the report also mentions the exceptional heroism by fire EMTs, who broke protocol and responded to the crime scene despite the lack of officers present to make sure it was safe.
According to a labor negotiations update on the city’s website, the POA has not provided any proposals to the city. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday.
SFPD just had five people shot. How many people have they lost?
I like how the article recognizes firefighters for breaking protocol by responding to the scene of a victim with life threatening injuries. I am trying to figure out what is heroic by responding to the scene of a single victim with life threatening injuries, with multiple witness and no suspects. While the police pursued three armed gang members with no respect for human life that just attempted to kill someone.
I guess we are still suppose to consider them heroes for taking a 10% reductions in pay and still responding to the scene and do their job.
Mahoney rhymes with Baloney for a reason.
How do YOU know that there were “…no suspects…” in the area of the victim? One of the general concepts of the “officer safety” mindset is that there are always others sympathetic to the primary suspects who are willing to act in concert with the primary’s to impede intervention by first resonders, frustrate investigations and generally interfere with the job of the police?
What we don’t know is whether or not this was a “gang retaliation shooting? a gang hit on an informant? an effort to eliminate a key witness to some gang or other crime? where the primary goal is to permanently prevent the guy who was shot from ever being able to cooperate with the police or anyone else? WOuldn’t it be in the realm of possiblity to imagine a scenario where some person or person freindly to the shooters might remain in the area to ensure the victim is finished for good?
Had the kid been blown up by a bomb wouldn’t first responders operate under the mindset that there might be secondary devices? … and HEROICALLY still respond to deliver lifesaving measures?
I never looked into the San Jose’s Police Officer’s Association until I saw this post.
To relate one random act of violence to Police Layoffs and budget issues is questionable. This is like telling your kids to there will be no Christmas because a kid broke his arm on a skateboard. There is no relation.
What are the professional credentials of the POA?
I promise you this is no “single act of violence” in San Jose. I think the message is that if there is less cops on the street and in the detective bureau, the chance of the suspects getting away greatly increases. just like the acts of violence will increase!!!
Well this is not just one act of violence. What mayor Reed and the of the “followers” won’t tell you is these acts of violence occur daily. We are just lucky that we have two first rate trauma centers in San Jose or many more would be dead. You ask what qualifications have to make the statements? Well they are on the front lines and Mayor Reed would never admit gang violence, burglaries, graffiti, domestic violence are all on the rise in San Jose. San Jose is the lowest staffed department of it size in the nation and not by a close margin, we are talking by close to a thousand. Reed not tell the citizens the truth because it makes him look bad. Reed focuses on pensions and lies by saying over 160 officers retired at 90%. He knew that was a lie but said it anyway!! What integrity does this man have? The officers can no longer be proactive and the citizens will suffer. If Reed hrs what he wants he’ll get a ballpark that will put the city in the red even more and crime will continue to rise. The police have gave concessions over the last two years but the firemen are heroes? Not saying they dont do a great job but Reed paints the police as a cancer when he voted in favor of these contracts. Even his own counsel members are turning on him (Licardo) as it seems Licardo has more integrity or he sees what will happen to the city! Pension reform may need to happen and the POA was willing to work on that, but Reed is set on destroying the city so he gets his ballpark. Sorry to the city of San Jose as your city is turning to an Oakland.
I use to go to work, at night, and think to myself, “If the citizens knew what was going out here, while they slept, it would scare them to death.” They just don’t know.
Your analogy regarding Christmas and the kid breaking his arm did not make sense! And because of that, I’m sure the POA’s professional credentials are better than yours!
What are their professional credentials??? Your kidding me right??? Their cops and they know what’s going on in the streets because they get their information straight from the horse’s mouth. If you think this is the first time there were no cops to respond to a critical incident in this town your kidding yourself or just listening to the lying politicians. That’s not something the Police Dept wants the public to know. But know this,,it will only get worst with lay-off’s. But then we also lost the safest city designation under mayor Reed’s watchful eye.
Before you compare yourself to other major cities do your homework.———-
At least 40 people were shot over the weekend across Chicago, with eight of them slain, according to police logs.
The toll covers a period from 8:43 p.m. Friday—after violent storms hit the city—to 6:39 this morning.
They can only hang their hat on scare tactics. I think a simple…“were going to do the best job we can with the limited amount of resources” would travel better than scare tactics.
Its called “truth tactics” not scare tactics. This city council is known for suger coating issues. The POA is finally exposing the truth covered by city hall for years.
Oh no the toilet is overflowing and the terds from East San Jo are commiting crimes in the golden ghetto of Almaden…there goes the neighborhood along with 300+ cops…thank mayor reed/figone
@“POA?”
POA=Police Officers’ Association. Credentials enough for you?
To the writer of the post, the site linked is called Protect San Jose.
That is all…
And this is while the department still has around 1,200 officers. Just wait until it goes down to 850 as planned by Mayor Reed. There will be few cancers, I mean officers, left to respond to calls. Maybe Constant and Luigi can work a 2 man car together.
Frank,
I have difficulty believing the POA on financial matters when I see what they did with their hall. The renovation was over the top and officers will be paying for it for years when the money could be better used for other things.
The city council slashing 350 officers has nothing to do with retrofitting a building, bought and paid for by San Jose Police officers with their own money, which was falling down. Other than that, it is a great comparison.
Folks complain about the unsavory elements that are in downtown now, but does anyone remember how much worse Hammertime was?
1st and Julian was a hotspot for drugs next to the cityteam missionary. Williams and 2nd street was a hotbed for prostitution, Story and King wasn’t anyplace you’d want to go at night either.
And I got mugged during that time. I was in my teens, 2 guys mugged me for my leather jacket while waiting for the bus near where city hall is today.
Despite all the dipshits on the streets these days, they’re just dumb, drunk, kids. They don’t scare me nearly as much as the schizophrenic, murderous villainy that used to wander our streets.
Let’s not forget our brave men and women that played a major part in the fight to clean up our streets. The police standing next to prostitutes during Mc Namameras time. How about the stepped up enforcement in the other areas. I’d imagine it was like stepping into the lions den at night, just an insanely incredible amount of fortitude to even pull yourselves out of bed in the morning to put up with all the aggravation cleaning things up must have put you all through.
Clearly you missed the.main thrust of the article which was to illustrate how thinly the PD is stretched already. If it weren’t for the citizen who followed the suspects, it is unlikely that any suspects would be in custody. Everyone should be alarmed at how long it took for officers to become available to respond to this act of violence. The point of the article was to illustrate how precariously balanced public safety is already and to assert that any cuts at all would be catastrophic.
If police and fire are so concerened about getting cut and endangering our city, why don’t they start giving up some of their unrealistic pensions and benefits. The average person doesn’t get health care coverage for life- no matter how heroic they might have been. No city employee should be making over 200k a year and getting continue getting a huge portion of that- years after they have stopped working.
Your questions and statements assume a couple of innaccuracies:
1. Public Safety pensions and benefits are unrealistic.
They aren’t. Most other agencies throughout the bay area offer comparable packages. In most cases the employees pay less – or nothing – toward their pension fund, with the employer taking up the employee contribution. Every single agency also does this while maintaining a higher ratio of officers to citizens than does San Jose. Mayor Reed admitted this the other night on KLIV. The reality is that San Jose isn’t competitive almost across the board, and almost no other agencies are talking about laying off cops. Oakland did and saw an almost immediate spike in crime. Unfortunately, that’s not on the talking points for the City Council.
2. The ‘health care for life’ issues is a canard. This adds, perhaps, a couple of hundred dollars per month to the total value of retirement compensation. Also, we actually pre-fund a portion of this as well.
3. You also state, “The average person…” Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but we aren’t ‘average’. The ‘average’ person can’t make it through the background and hiring process, much less the academy and Field Training. It is a very small percentage of applicants who actually get hired to the position of police recruits. And our jobs are predicated on dealing with people and situations for which the ‘average’ person is ill prepared or disinclined to deal.
4. “No city employee should…” Guess what? The vast majority of us don’t. Certainly your average beat cop or firefighter doesn’t make over $200k. The ones who do are usually those in an ‘executive’ type position. With the PD, that tends to be Division Commanders and higher. Also, pension spiking doesn’t exist within the PD. It’s kind of hard to ‘spike’ your pension when you can only get paid for 6 hours of overtime every two weeks regardless of how much overtime you’ve actually worked.
Please.
Based on the POA’s website….it looks like Officer Kopp already flew to Austin, Texas, for a job interview. Might as well, since our city is going to lay him off. I am not proud to be a San Jose resident today.
Mickey Tyrone (North San Jose resident)
Josh, I understand that this is a “blog” and not the type of “high journalism” practices by the likes of the local print-rag but:
“According to the POA, the three suspects in the drive-by shooting—who fled in a brown van before trying to get away on foot—were caught by several officers aided by an attack dog….”
An “attack dog…?” Really?
Prof.,
That’s a fair point. It has been changed.
JK
Josh, good man. Thank you!
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~Commonly attributed to Edmund Burke
Didn’t vallejo go through a large loss of members? Anyone check out the crime trends in that city. Chicken Littles were running around in that city screaming the sky is falling. I don’t think that happened.
It’s almost like a “hope” by these doom an glooms that the citizens will become victims of violent crime. All so that they can say “I told you so.” Real nice and professional.
Alternatively, you could look at what happened in Oakland or Vallejo…
What I get for composing before the coffee has kicked in. I meant to say Camden NJ instead of Vallejo. Sorry about that folks.
Not sure what some of these commenters are blathering about. Go to the link and read the original post. They simply describe the facts of what happened. If the facts seem partisan blame yourself for your own bias blinders.
,…another gang related shooting today across from VMC. “W” on the cap left at the scene usually means “Westside Mob.” Yup,…it all posturing and bluster from the POA. Just lame threats about how it is less safe in SJ. Some won’t be satisfied until THEY themselves are shot by a gang member. Only THEN will they be convinced SJ is less safe…
Sooo close to Valley Med Center… Del Mar High… City College SJ…
Once again your showing your true colors. It’s all about people as victims. We as citizens feel sorry when people get shot with the potential of loss of life. We also understand that work for our Police force will continue to be stressful. Your thoughts are see see see we the POA see see see. Thats not good for the organization.
Please use YOUR name when posting, not mine.
Secondly, WHAT exactly is your greater point? You don’t like the manner/style in which the information is presented. It’s not sugar coated enough for you? It is not supposed to be. Less police, more crime. Violent crimes, esp prove this. Simple enough?
What are those true colors? We understand IT IS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE. I have seen PEOPLE die, have you? If this is the entirety of your post I can see why you chose not to use your name.
Scare tactics are the tools used by civil servants in attempts to preserve what they have.
There is absolutely no correlation between how much you pay police staffing and the safety of a city.
The quality of a city and neighborhoods largely depends on the quality and responsibility of the citizens.
Responsible civilians are a much better investment than paying for a bloated civil servants.
Take back our tax dollars now!
You’re right TU. The relative safety of a community is a function of the quality and responsibility of the citizens- NOT about the number of cops and the amount we pay them.
The City’s policy of encouraging low income housing, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of illegals and deadbeats, is what is at the heart of any uptick in crime. You could pay 5,000 cops a million dollars a year and it wouldn’t offset the damage done by our idiot city “leaders” and their meddlesome social engineering.
“There is absolutely no correlation between how much you pay police staffing and the safety of a city.”
Low pay will equal low quality. I’m not a police officer but I do know that this city HAD one of the top quality forces in the nation and that is why San Jose was ranked “The 5th Safest City in the Nation”. That was due to top notch officers. Take the pay away and those top officers go elsewhere. The city will have to reduce its standards for getting the “best” because they will no longer be able to attract the “best”. City then settles for lower quality officers who will except the lower pay…and your city is no longer the 5th safest city in the nation. The crooks know what’s going on. Don’t think that they don’t. Once they see things going down the tube, they will start to test it. Once they test and see what they can get away with, the crimes will grow and grow until they are out of control. So, think again. I am not in the business but I am a psychologist.
JG
For the record, I am inclined to agree with you. San Jose’s leadership (and NOT the PD) has been all too willing to bend over backwards and play fast and loose with the law. And the leadership of San Jose has done an appalling amount of damage with their decisions, policies and rhetoric.
With respect to wages, etc…for the record, San Jose’s competition in the public safety industry is pretty stiff. Following are the highlights:
SFPD: Wages $82k+ to $110k+ with 3% @ 50 retirement formula. I believe employee pays 9% to retirment
SCPD: Wages $80k+ to $116k+ with 3% @ 50 retirement formula and 3% COLA and I believe employee pays 9% to retirement.
Fremont PD: $80k+ to $98k+ 3% @ 50 retirement formula and employer pays the employee’s 9% contribution, 13 paid holidays
Redwood City PD: $84k+ to $103k+, 3% @ 50 retirement formula, 14 paid holidays, all uniforms, cleaning and equipment paid for by City
Palo Alto PD: $84k to $112k+ 11 hour shifts including 1 hour paid time to work out, 3% @ 50 retirement formula with city taking up the employee’s PERS contribution, 5% night shift differential, all uniforms, equipment, cleaning paid for by the city.
San Jose isn’t competitive with any of these cities, if for no other reason than, at about 23% retirement contribution vs. 9% max, we pay 250% more (or more) than what other cities’ officers contribute. That on its own works out to adding about $20k to the annual salary.
I questioned Mayor Reed on this topic. He acknowledged that San Jose isn’t competitive and stated that he doesn’t know how other cities compensate their police officers this way. And yet, at the same time, he noted that other cities generate more revenue per capita than San Jose does.
Well, Mr. Mayor, there’s your answer. Revenue. Other cities are more desirable locales in which to do business. San Jose’s economy, by contrast, is moribund. San Jose’s policies are toxic to businesses as is its licensing and fee structure. And, to make matters worse, the Mayor is among the majority of the other city council members who, time and again, vote for zoning conversions, allowing for San Jose’s population to increase while the (potential) tax base decreases.