Council debates when, where officers needed
Four days after San Antonio voters shot down a ballot measure intended to enact some degree of police reform, City Council members tussled over whether residents want more police officers patrolling city streets.
Some 57 percent of residents surveyed in a recent poll commissioned by the city say police should be more visible in their neighborhoods. The city undertook the poll as part of a broader effort to figure out what people expect from the San Antonio Police Department — and what reforms need to be made.
To some council members, the answer was unambiguous: Residents want more police officers, plain and simple.
“People are happy with our police force,” said District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry, who represents the Northeast Side. “They want to see more of it.”
But others took a more nuanced approach.
Of the 1,150 residents surveyed by ETC Institute, a national research firm, a solid majority of residents were satisfied with the police — 72 percent.
Nearly 80 percent feel safe in their neighborhood during the day while only 59 percent say they feel that way at night.
How safe residents feel at night depends on where they live.
Some 70 percent of those polled who live on the North Side — in Districts 8, 9 and 10 — said they feel comfortable in their neighborhoods when the sun goes down.
Not so on the South Side, where fewer than 50 percent of residents of Districts 3 and 4 felt that way.
That came as little shock to council members on the West and South sides. The North Side has more gated communities as well as better roads, sidewalks and street lights than other parts of the city, they noted — all of which contribute to a feeling of safety.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that sending more police officers to the other six districts is going to solve any problem if we don’t provide them the infrastructure as well,” said District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, who represents a portion of the West Side.
City officials are trying to figure out whether it makes sense to send police officers out on every call that comes into 911. Some 80 percent of police incidents are so minor they don’t even get written up, according to an analysis of 3.1 million 911 calls conducted by the University of Texas at San Antonio.
More than two-thirds of calls to
San Antonio police are for instances like mental health disturbances, incidents involving an animal, panhandling, theft and suspicious people or vehicles, the analysis said.
More violent incidents like assault, burglary or fights involving a gun or knife make up 5 percent of 911 calls.
The most severe incidents — rapes, robberies, shootings and major vehicle accidents — make up less than 1 percent of all 911 calls.
That stood out to Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
“We hear about the 0.5 percent all the time,” Nirenberg said. “But the bulk of the work is happening on these other priority calls.”
Residents don’t seem to think police officers have much business responding to minor calls.
Officers should have primary responsibility for handling calls regarding theft, trespassing and suspicious people and vehicles in the neighborhood, a majority of poll respondents said. But perhaps it’s best for others to handle incidents like mental health calls that don’t involve a weapon, fireworks complaints and parking violations.
But there are severe cases that fall into gray territory. The city is trying to figure out other ways to handle calls related to domestic violence and mental health crises rather than sending a police officer.
Perry seemed uncomfortable with that, given that those instances can turn violent — the kinds of situations that police officers are intended to handle.
“I don’t want to send anybody into a dangerous situation in this city that would threaten their life,” Perry said.
Police Chief William Mcmanus took those concerns, also raised by Nirenberg, into account but held to the notion that police shouldn’t have to handle every call.
“There needs to be deeper discussion,” Mcmanus said. “I do believe there should be some alternative type of response.”
City officials are trying to put together a police reform package — partially culled from public input obtained through a series of community meetings — and put it in front of City Council in August as they hammer out the city’s next annual budget.
Meanwhile, the city is making headway in contract negotiations with the San Antonio Police Officers Association on key measures to give the city more leeway to punish officers accused of misconduct.
Under the current contract,
Mcmanus can’t discipline an officer for alleged misconduct if he finds out about the incident more than six months after it occurs. The city instead wants to give the police chief the power to hand down discipline within six months of learning about an incident — to which the police union agreed.
But the union’s negotiators haven’t budged on a city proposal to bar independent arbitrators, who rule on officers’ appeals of discipline, from overturning punishment handed down by the chief. By various estimates, about two-thirds of fired police officers return to the force — either because the police chief gives them their job back or the arbitrator does.
The police union also hasn’t agreed to allow the chief to use past misconduct when determining punishment for a new incident.
But political observers say the recent vote on Proposition B will likely force the union to give ground. The ballot measure would have taken away the union’s right to bargain for their contract — but failed by a narrow margin. If the union doesn’t relent, observers say, they could wind up losing that right at the ballot box in a later election.