Liccardo wants to focus on reform instead of cuts.
Liccardo says he doesn’t want city to be a ‘guinea pig’ for defunding efforts
SANJOSl>> As calls across the country mount from activists and protesters to defund, downsize and even dismantle police departments, San Jose leaders are proposing slashing just 10 positions from its police force and focusing on police reform while tackling a $78.1 million shortfall.
The city’s proposed budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year comes a day after Mayor Sam Liccardo said no significant funding cuts would be made to the police department despite calls from activists to do so.
During an interview on Monday, Liccardo said defunding the department “doesn’t help the very communities that have been burdened by structural racism for decades in this nation” and said he would not want San Jose to be a “guinea pig” in the “experiment” of defunding police. Clamoring for San Jose to make similar com
mitments as other cities to defund the police department, thousands of protesters have gathered outside City Hall for the past two weeks demanding that San Jose cut funding to its police force and put the money toward other services aimed at bridging racial divides within the city.
Instead of diverting money from the police department to prevent layoffs and cutbacks in other city departments, the council next week will be considering a budget that eliminates 10 positions from the department, hires two new police lieutenants and provides more funding for police services.
Aside from cuts to the community service officers’ program, the department won’t be seeing any significant staffing reductions to its over 1,700 officers and other staff.
Planned budget reductions of about $17.5 million — $20.1 million more thanthe2018budget—will mostly focus on cuts to programs and services in the department, including the elimination of a $7.2 million partnership with San Jose State University to recruit police officers.
The department will save $1.4 million by cutting eight community service officer positions and two senior officers in the program, all of which are vacant. The program was started in mid2014 to help police officers by responding to and investigating lower priority calls for service, the SJPD website says.
Officers in the program perform limited enforcement duties like issuing parking tickets and towing abandoned vehicles, as well as investigating burglaries, petty theft, vandalism and other non-hazardous police functions.
“Although there are no immediate service impacts, an ongoing reduction in the CSO program will reduce the number of calls to which CSO’s can respond,” the budget summary says. The department previously had 64 regular office positions and eight senior officer positions.
The city still plans to spend big bucks on the police department this year, however.
About $725,000 has been allocated to hire five analysts to answer California Public Records Act requests, and another $300,000 will be spent on background checks for police academy candidates.
About $151,000 will be spent as one-time funding to hire a temporary police lieutenant and another $309,000 will be spent to hire another lieutenant for the recently-formed Special Victims Unit.
Although Liccardo pledged to expand the authority of the Office of the Independent Police Auditor, no new funding will go to that office this year. Instead the city will cut about $3,000 from the office to reflect savings from printing and advertising expenses.
Asked on Monday whether he agreed with activists’ demands that police be defunded in exchange for further investment in programs like Community Service Officers, Liccardo said he’s “not sure that proponents have really thought through what the implications are for victims of domestic violence let alone for whoever we are going to subject to the duty of responding to those crimes.”
“On the other hand, if what they’re saying is that there are instances in which police involvement in a social problem may be one in which police are poorly equipped, I think me and the police chief agree,” Liccardo said.
He then touted several policies that mean San Jose schools no longer have police officers on campus and a program that has enlisted mental health professionals to ride along with SJPD officers so that the “first response is not someone with a badge and a gun.”
But Liccardo said there are situations where an armed police officer’s response is necessary.
“We can’t just say we’ll defund and figure it out,” Liccardo said. “Of course, there should be reform so we can find alternative ways to engage the community without the heavy hand of a police officer. But the transition is awfully important.”