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February 2024 Spotlight: Public Safety

Correction: An earlier version of the Spotlight provided the wrong date when referencing our Police Department Workforce. The correct date for when our Police Department workforce consisted of 59 sworn officers and 33 professional support staff is 2013.

Hello Gilroy! As our city continues to grow, so do the demands on our city services to keep up. Streets, sewer, water, police and fire protection, and medical response are all essential city services that should never be jeopardized when compared to population growth. Sadly, hundreds of new State housing laws to which all jurisdictions must adhere come without a dime of revenue to help support the same level of city services commensurate with the population growth brought on by those housing mandates. As a consequence, city service levels suffer, and we’re put in the position of having to spread resources more thinly among categories of service that are all essential. This month I’d like to focus on public safety and the service levels we have today for police, fire, and emergency medical response. From there we can assess where we’d like to be, what it would cost, and how to get there.

Read on, then join me, Gilroy Police Chief Pedro Espinoza and Gilroy Fire Chief Jim Wyatt at the upcoming Conversation and Coffee with the Mayor on Saturday, 3/2 at 9:30am in Council Chambers for a healthy discussion on how we as a community can address public safety service levels in Gilroy. Thank you for taking the time to contribute what you can to find solutions that make life better (and safer) in Gilroy for all of us.

Mayor Marie Blankley, CPA 

Police/Law Enforcement

I last high-lighted the Gilroy Police Department in the September 2022 Spotlight. Today, like then, I receive e-mails and phone calls from residents continuing to express frustration with criminal activity such as theft, vandalism, drug and alcohol use in public spaces, large and disruptive gatherings, events held without notification and permits, drag racing, excessive speeding, and illegal parking, to name the ones that come to mind. Couple all of that with violent/life-threatening crime in addition to what we’ve come to call “Quality of Life” issues, and it isn’t hard to understand the impacts of service call demand on our Police Department. If workforce growth cannot remain proportionate to increased demand for service, the city falls short in responding as readily to calls for service, causing all of us to experience a drop in service level and noticeable increases to what we’re all forced to tolerate.

Looking back over the last 10 years, Gilroy’s population increased from 53,325 in 2013 to 60,078 in 2023, an increase of 12.7%. In 2013, our Police Department workforce consisted of 59 sworn officers and 33 professional support staff (including dispatchers who direct 911 calls for fire and medical response too). Today, our Police Department workforce consists of 67 sworn officers and 37 professional staff, an increase of 13.6% and 12.1%, respectively. During that same timeframe, calls for service went from 20,502 in 2013 to 23,659 in 2023, an increase of 15.4%, higher than our population increase alone. To keep up with demand from our residents for service, our workforce must grow in proportion to that demand. Since 2020, the California state legislature has enacted hundreds upon hundreds of state housing laws, all of which aim to increase housing supply and reduce the cost of housing throughout the state, yet none of which address the stress and demand then placed on city services that become more and more thinly spread.

It is critical to note the Police Department's adaptive approach to staffing challenges, especially in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. While the authorized sworn personnel reached a peak of 70 before the recession, adjustments were made during the economic downturn. The redeployment of the entire Neighborhood Resources Unit and the implementation of attrition measures led to a temporary reduction, with the force reaching a low of 58. Our officers are amongst the busiest in the county in terms of workload. This often stalls a primary objective to carve out unobligated time for our officers to take a proactive approach to community policing. The goal is for them to have the time to make positive public relations contacts during their daily deployments, and to develop strong ties within their beats. This personalized engagement extends to getting to know local merchants and community members, actively addressing their concerns, and fostering a sense of collaboration for a safer and more connected community.

To address the immediate and growing issues related to the unhoused, the City Council authorized in November 2021 a Quality-of-Life (QOL) Police Officer Pilot Program designed to address quality-of-life crimes and concerns proactively. Two officers were selected from the existing complement of officers for this full-time assignment that began in March 2022 and would conclude in March 2024. The goal was to achieve a more dedicated focus on quality-of-life issues rather than having different patrol officers trying to respond to these calls for service. In January 2024, given the comprehensive report and positive outcomes from the two-year pilot program presented to the City Council, a permanent QOL Police Officer Program was established (comprised of one Police Corporal and one Police Officer). As a side note, the city also continues with the deployment of a two-person part-time crew assigned weekly to citywide trash cleanup in areas of our jurisdiction.

Fire/Emergency Medical Response

I last highlighted Fire/Emergency Medical Response Services in the January 2022 Spotlight. Today, and given the length of time it’s taking to get the permanent fire station built at the corner of West Luchessa and Miller in the Glen Loma development area, the temporary station at Christmas Hill Park has been remodeled to accommodate 24-hour staffing 7 days a week, an increase from the previous 12-hour staffing of 8am-8pm, so that fire and emergency medical response not only in the Santa Teresa District but also citywide can better meet our Standard of Coverage goals.

Staffing of all 4 stations 24/7 (Las Animas, Chestnut, Sunrise and Santa Teresa stations) has been dependent on deployable staff on any given day. Thirty-six firefighter/paramedics are necessary to cover 3 shifts per day with a 3-person crew at all 4 stations. Employed with the Gilroy Fire Department today are 38 fire/paramedic personnel, three Fire Division Chiefs, two support staff, and one Fire Chief. Deployable personnel refers to the number of personnel remaining after excluding those who are on long-term leave. Given the unusual rise in non-deployable staff in 2023 and the need for transparency in how/why each station is then staffed within the existing available staffing, the City Council directed city staff to publish a weekly report on daily staffing and citywide overtime and absences at all four stations. These weekly reports began in November 2023 and remain ongoing. They highlight on any given day the number of deployable staff and, conversely, the number of absences and the number of staff hours on overtime. Unforeseen absences with out-of-the-ordinary frequency forces a more frequent overtime burden on the remaining deployable personnel who have already worked their own shifts. When use of overtime continues to mount, the health and safety of what’s left of our deployable staff is compromised, and the level of emergency response our residents deserve is jeopardized.

Among other measures being taken to address staffing, the City has funded positions for two additional firefighter/paramedic personnel in the next fiscal year (ending June 30, 2025). The increase in staffing numbers will facilitate increased deployable personnel to help staff our fire stations while reducing overtime.

For public safety staffing in general, our growing population necessitates more personnel than our existing resources allow. Whether increasing police presence or reducing emergency fire/medical response times, our personnel and how we measure their capacity to perform is in proportion to the number of people in our city for whom they are responsible to serve, and in proportion to the number of calls for service generated by that population. Unfunded mandates continue to exacerbate these challenges as we no longer have local control to manage our own population growth, and state housing laws do nothing to support city services commensurate with that growth and the corresponding increase in service demand, not to mention the parking and transportation effects on bedroom communities such as Gilroy that do not yet have adequate transportation options to reach far away job centers. Where we go from here is up to all of us. Either voters bring back local control to cities to manage growth in proportion to essential city services, or voters show willingness to pay specifically for certain city services at the ballot box, or we continue to do the best that we can with the resources that we have, understanding that service levels cannot improve as population grows without commensurate increases in revenue.