San José’s Burglary Unit
In recent mailers, Dave Cortese and his allies have sent out mailers suggesting that Sam voted to eliminate the Burglary Investigations Unit. They fail to mention that the Burglary Unit actually still exists – an inconvenient fact for those claiming that Sam voted to eliminate it somehow. If you’d like to call detecives in that unit, you can reach them at (408) 277-4401.
Nobody doubts that the unit is understaffed, like most units in the Police Department. That’s why Sam crafted the proposal last year to identify the over $30 million in pension reform savings needed to accelerate hiring, and improve retention. As a result of that effort, we’ve added a third Police Academy class this year—with over 1,000 applicants, and we’ve restored officer pay 11%. Sam will continue to prioritize adding officers to our thinly staffed Department throughout his first term in office.
It’s also important for residents to understand that we put a Police Chief in charge of the department for a reason. Chief Larry Esquivel allocates and deploys staff, not the Council. The Council does not have that responsibility under the City Charter; the Charter appropriately gives the Chief plenary authority to run his or her department, under the direction of the City Manager. The Council’s role is legislative: we allocate the budget for the entire department, and we pass ordinances and set policy. With minor exceptions, the Chief and his senior team determine how best to allocate staff within their budget to respond to the city’s safety needs, because that’s his job.
At times, councilmembers have brought proposals to tell the Chief to “establish this unit,” or “bolster staffing in that unit.” More often than not, these are publicity stunts, to show the public that they’re doing something about crime. Overwhelmingly, the majority of the Council simply votes against those proposals as inappropriate incursions into the Chief’s responsibility to run his own department.
In fact, Chief Esquivel has appropriately focused staffing resources within the department on its highest priority: neighborhood patrols. Putting cops on the beat has the most direct impact on reducing and responding to crime, and the Chief’s patrol-first approach has resulted in a substantial reduction in violent and property crime over the two years, with a roughly 16% reduction in serious felonies over that time.