Coronado Police Stage Work Slowdown

In what amounts to a job slowdown, Coronado’s police union said Friday that it will take extreme measures to guarantee its own safety because the city has too few police officers, and its communications system often fails to work properly.

The 42-member department has informed the City Council and top administrators in a statement that officers “have determined to exercise their legal discretion to provide a maximum level of safety” to themselves and the community they serve.

The union statement said radios don’t carry signals from one end of the island to the other, a police station designed for 25 houses about 60, and Coronado has too few police.

Starting immediately, officers will no longer make arrests without backup assistance, as they say they do now, and will send two officers on every radio call.

“It’s a demonstration of dissatisfaction with the progress of the council providing a safe work environment,” Everett Bobbitt, attorney for the police union, said. “The council is not going to be on the streets helping us. We have to help ourselves.”

Coronado Police Chief Jack Drown said he is aware of the problems, and each is being addressed.

The City Council has approved a new police station on a historical site that is still undergoing environmental review, he said. About $28,000 has recently been spent to improve radio communications, although Drown acknowledged that there are still minor glitches to be solved.

As for staff, Drown makes no apologies, noting that the 42 officers for its 26,000 residents throughout 6 square miles is the second-highest in the county, behind the city of San Diego. Response time is usually less than three minutes, Drown said.

The union’s labor contract with the city expired July 1, and negotiations are continuing while officers work under an extension of last year’s contract.

Coronado City Manager Homer Bludau said a new police station will cost $4 million to $6 million, and the council has yet to decide whether it wants to proceed with the building.

“There are no guarantees it will be built,” Bludau said.

Union officials say a new building has been promised for 15 years.

Union concerns that involve money are not going to addressed until the state’s financial picture clears in the next few weeks, he said. Problems over the communications system have never been raised during labor negotiations, Bludau said.

Bobbitt said the communications mishaps have been raised for years, and are perhaps the most serious of the troubles facing the department.

Union president Dave McCauley said the new system recently installed is worse than its predecessor. All too often, he said, someone in a patrol car cannot hear commands from a dispatcher, or vice versa.

“I was down in the Coronado Cays the other day, and I could hear them trying to raise me,” McCauley said. “I had to switch to a backup frequency. If I’m in a hostile situation, I don’t have time to do that.”

Both Drown and Bludau say they do not expect labor negotiations to cause work slowdowns.

“I would expect the police officers to conduct themselves in the highly professional manner that they have always conducted themselves,” Bludau said. “Right now, we need a dialogue with the (labor) association.”

The Coronado Police Department sends two officers out on most calls and waits for backup patrols before arrests are made, Drown said, so “it remains to be seen what effect, if any,” the union’s new policy will mean.

“Police response to emergency situations will remain unchanged,” the union’s statement said. “However, citizens expecting quick responses for routine crime reports are likely to be disappointed.”