Buyout Offer to Shrink San Diego Police Force

Sixty to 70 officers of all ranks in the San Diego Police Department are expected to accept a buyout offer that will bring the agency to its lowest staffing level in years, Police Chief Bob Burgreen said Tuesday.

The reduction will trim the department of 32 ranking captains, lieutenants and sergeants and 30 to 40 field officers. It comes after rank and file officers have given up a 1.5% pay raise it was promised last spring.

Under the terms of the buyout--offered to anyone 50 or older with 20 or more years of service--two years of service is added to each individual’s retirement package.

Burgreen himself has accepted the package and will retire in January. He will work under a separate contract with the city to guide the department for several months after that.

The loss of so many officers leaves the city, which did not graduate a single recruit from its last police academy class, in a bind over a promise made by the City Council in June that it would hire 250 officers by the end of 1998.

City leaders have often complained that the ratio of San Diego officers to population--about 1.6 per 1,000--has been at or near the bottom for the 10 largest U.S. cities for the last four years.

For some ranks, downsizing will be permanent, Burgreen said, including the elimination of two assistant chiefs, three captains, 11 lieutenants and eight sergeants.

Burgreen predicted a lag in the department’s ability to respond to calls between January--when the buyout is accepted--and February, 1994, when the next police academy class is graduated.