3 months ago
VALLEJO, CA- First there was the city's bankruptcy filing in May of 2008. Then came the collapse of the economy, with tax revenue to the city seeing a dramatic fall. The result; in the last two years, the Vallejo Police Department has seen the number of its sworn officers fall from 150 to 111.
"We've lost about 25-percent of our sworn workforce, plus some of our non-sworn civilian support staff as well," said veteran Vallejo Police Lieutenant Eric Mortenson.
With the workload heavier and job security uncertain, some officers are taking early retirement, others have moved to other agencies. "Right now, we have four of our officers in the hiring process with other agencies," said Mortenson.
Response times, even to high-priority calls, is going up. Vallejo resident Anna Valdez said she recently called police after a threat involving domestic violence. "And it took them two hours to come out," she said.
Officers said at one point last Saturday night, over two-dozen high-priority calls were waiting for units to respond. "We're having to constantly face prioritization of workload, shifting more work to fewer employees," said Mortenson.
Vallejo has roughly half the crimes reported in Solano County, yet the department now has fewer officers than either of the next two largest cities, Vacaville and Fairfield.
Mortenson said there are times when only a handful of officers are on patrol for the entire city. "One may be out of town on a prisoner transport or some other detail like that, and we're trying to police this town with five or six officers. It's just not enough."
Next month, the city council is considering whether to make cuts to the department in a bid to save money.
Mortenson said he and others on the force are hoping for an economic rebound to allow the department to hire back more officers.
Faced with even less officers on the street, Valdez remains concerned for her own personal safety. "What would happen if these threats actually were to come true?" she asked.
by Dave Marquis, dmarquis@news10.net
News10/KXTV
