SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Police Department is facing what union leaders are calling a “critical tipping point,” with officer staffing levels projected to fall below 600 by 2026 amid low recruitment numbers and ongoing budget challenges, KCRA reported.
“We have 639 officers right now,” said Dustin Smith, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association. “In a normal city with our population, you would think we’d be right around 1,050 police officers. Seeing that we’re a capital city, we would probably be projected to be more like 1,200. At the end of the day, we’re about half staffed here in the city of Sacramento.”
Nine new officers are expected to graduate from the department’s upcoming academy class, according to the report. Smith stated that unless hiring accelerates significantly, the department could face even more serious operational strain.
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Smith said that calls for service are delayed. Officers must prioritize person-to-person crimes, leaving lower-priority calls, such as burglaries, waiting in line.
“If you have a burglary and then there’s six or seven other people that have called in person-to-person crimes, you’re going to wait quite a while before we get to your burglary,” Smith said. “And we are already seeing it.”
City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum acknowledged the staffing crisis, noting the city has relied heavily on overtime to maintain basic levels of service.
“For the foreseeable future, we are going to be understaffed,” said Pluckebaum. “It’s why we’ve been using so much overtime for so long to make up the level of service that we’re trying to accomplish.”
He added that a long-term solution won’t be immediate.
“It took us a while to get here. It’s going to take us a while to get away from here.”
Mayor Kevin McCarty echoed concerns about the department’s staffing but cited the city’s $44 million budget deficit as a major obstacle to new hiring.
“I’d like to hire more police officers to respond to gun violence, faster response to 911 calls, petty crime in our neighborhoods, break-ins,” said McCarty. “But right now, we’re facing a deficit.”
McCarty said economic growth is part of the city’s strategy to address long-term staffing challenges. He pointed to an upcoming city council vote on a new soccer stadium as a potential revenue generator that could help fund public safety in the future.
“By growing our economy, having new projects in the city of Sacramento brings in new tax revenue to hire more police officers,” McCarty said.
