Study Says Police Face Manpower Crisis

San Diego employs 1.6 officers for every thousand residents, but the city police union analyzed the number of police actually working on the street and found the ratio far lower.

In a station-to-station study by the Police Officers’ Assn., the labor organization concluded that many areas of San Diego are protected by an on-the-street police manpower level of one officer per 15,000 to 19,000 residents.

Although the city now funds 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, national averages call for a minimum of 2 or more officers for every 1,000.

San Diego has a total of 1,821 sworn officers.

“Manpower has reached a state where officers’ safety is critical and at an all-time low,” said Willie P. Smith, a patrol sergeant in the department’s Northern Division and the study’s author.

“To say we presently have 1.6 officers per thousand is misleading and does not represent the number of officers needed or available to handle police problems. It is similar to a racehorse owner saying he has 20 jockeys but only one of them can ride a horse.”

Steve McMillan, a POA vice president, said Monday that many of the city’s sworn officers work desk jobs and other non-emergency assignments, while others are on vacation or injury and sick leave.

“It’s the beat cops who are suffering,” he said. “It’s the guy in the uniform.”

The official number of sworn Police Department members, which includes supervisors, desk assignments, injured and light-duty personnel, has been set at 1.6 officers per thousand residents for several years. Recently, however, city and police administrators have been trying to increase the number of uniformed officers on the streets.

Cmdr. Larry Gore, a police spokesman, said police administrators are aware that on-the-street staffing levels are lower than the 1.6 ratio. “I’m not at all surprised,” he said of the POA study.

The city fiscal year budget that recently ended had allocated $139.9 million to the Police Department. In May, City Manager John Lockwood proposed a $145-million police budget for fiscal year 1990-91, and the City Council eventually gave tentative approval to $153 million. That number is expected to be given final approval today. The extra $8 million was earmarked to restore the police community safety officer program, the boat patrol program and the horse patrol unit, all of which would have been lost with Lockwood’s lower funding recommendation. But, had the City Council scuttled the horse and boat programs, they would have freed up more than a dozen officers to work regular beat patrol, city officials said.

Meanwhile, city officials also are considering a ballot initiative for November that they hope will bring in new money for street cops.