Making sure that happens is the daily mission of San Diego Police Department Lt. Gloria also said the last three police academies were full. To the extent that we’re challenged in this space is largely due to the fact that we see rising levels of crime that are reflected across the nation.” “Here’s the thing: When you look at staffing levels, we have just shy of 1,900 officers at the city of San Diego.” Gloria said. The mayor disagrees with the notion that staffing issues are driving down response times. Examples include: missing children, child abuse, domestic violence, disturbances involving weapons/violence and bomb threats." They aren’t as serious as emergency calls, of which the department met its time goal of seven minutes. The SDPD defines priority one calls as "… serious crimes in progress or a threat to life. The target is less than half that: 14 minutes. It shows that last fiscal year, it took officers an average of 33.4 minutes to respond to Priority One calls. He’s referencing the city’s annual performance reports for all its departments. “When you're getting beat up on the street, and it takes 33 minutes for a police officer to get to you, that is unacceptable.” The result, according to Wilson, is a thinner police force that’s less safe for both officers and the public it serves. Wilson said the strain of losing officers for any reason is driving already-overworked officers to resign. He says there’s a perceived lack of support from top city brass.
You’ll continue to see that priority as the budget improves.” You saw that reflected in a tough budget year. “I have my work cut out for me," the mayor said.
This year, he said, he hopes to raise wages by even more and hopes to sign a new contract with the police before the city adopts a new budget, which he’ll propose on Friday. The mayor pointed out that officers still received their planned 3% raise last year despite a budget deficit. “We had a period in time where wage increases were not provided for nearly half a decade,” Gloria said. Gloria said that previous mayors and councils didn’t pay officers enough. “We have a nearly 2,000-person police department of sworn officers that go out and do incredible work, and that’s reflected in the fact that we’re one of the safest big cities in the country.” “I want to be really clear: I think we have an incredible police department,” Gloria said. Wilson told NBC 7 the police department is “broken.” The mayor disagrees. “I know that we’re asking a tremendous amount out of them.”
“When I talk to police officers, I know they have a tough job,” Gloria said. NBC 7 Investigates sat down with San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, who acknowledged the issues facing the department. The main issue, Wilson said, has been building for decades: low morale due to sub-average salaries. It’s a catalyst but it’s not the main issue.” And it’s just beyond the mandate at this point. ”Once a few people leave, it just keeps going and going and going. “It’s somewhat of a snowball,” Wilson told NBC 7. The city said that so far, only 68 officers stated the mandate is the reason why they left, but Wilson feels the real number is much higher. Last year, a police union survey showed more than 400 officers would consider quitting if the city enforced a vaccine mandate.
“And we told everyone that would happen last year.” “They told us they would leave, and they did” Wilson said. Wilson said the exodus isn’t the result of one issue but said the vaccine mandate imposed by the city of San Diego pushed some over the edge, paving the way for others to follow. The police department is broken and we need to fix it.” “I would not recommend this agency right now," Wilson said. Jared Wilson, president of the San Diego Police Officers Association, had very little positive to share about the situation.
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