Vallejo chief says crime may swell as police force shrinks
Vallejo Times Herald
09/18/2008
A FEDERAL Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent loads workers from Empire Buffet on Sonoma Boulevard into a van after a raid Wednesday morning. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald) Vallejo Police Chief Robert Nichelini told the City Council late Tuesday night that crime conditions had improved about 20 percent since his hiring in 1995, but he warned that trend might not continue as the police force continues to shrink.
Nichelini said the force, at 124 sworn officers in June, had fallen to 117 officers. There likely will be fewer than 100 by year's end, he said.
Earlier Tuesday, six officers made it newly known that they will be leaving Vallejo to join the Fairfield Police Department, Nichelini said.
Ideas discussed for curbing the staffing inadequacies included installing security cameras downtown and in other areas, wooing officers from smaller police agencies and revitalizing the department's cadet program, Nichelini said.
In response to a resident's question, Nichelini said his department is mostly losing its younger and older officers, many after hearing of the federal bankruptcy court judge's recent ruling that Vallejo qualified for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. Nichelini said officers' reasons for leaving have included a need for stability and an incorrect belief that their benefits and salaries will be drastically cut.
Nichelini showed the council charts comparing Vallejo's crime rate to Bay Area cities with populations of 100,000 or more. In that grouping, Vallejo had the fifth-highest crime rate per capita. In its police department staffing levels, he said, Vallejo fell to second-lowest per capita, a staffing level nowhere near those of the other high-crime cities.
"We have the smallest number of support staff of anybody on this chart except Daly City," Nichelini said.
He clarified that he did not attribute significant jumps in crime to employee loss.
Councilwoman Stephanie Gomes said she wants to know what the department was doing about crime and officer retention and recruitment. Two ways she suggested improving crime conditions would be by helping residents set up neighborhood watch groups, and by considering hiring officers who have paid their own way through the police academy.
Nichelini said generally self-pay candidates are problematic, often coming with disciplinary problems.
"I think it's an egregious mistake to start hiring the lower quality people," Nichelini said. "People who can get a job, who are highly qualified, they go to agencies that will pay for them."
Gomes countered that it also would be a mistake to automatically rule out all such candidates. Nichelini said he was willing to speak with those candidates.
"Instead of saying we don't have the money, I'm saying, how do we move forward," Gomes said.
In other meeting news, City Manager Joseph Tanner told the council that the state 2008-2009 budget, as currently proposed, would mean a $400,000 booking fee loss to the city's general fund. The city set aside a much larger budget cushion of $1 million for state funding reductions.
