Police shortage
Edgardo Garcia, San Jose Chief of Police, told the city council on Tuesday that he is struggling to replace police officers who are no longer available because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has worsened a continuous shortage of San Jose officers.
“We have five department members that have tested positive: one sergeant, two full-time officers, one reserve officer and one civilian staff member,” he said.
During the council’s remote meeting, held over Zoom to practice social distancing, Garcia said recruitment has “taken a hit” and less people have applied.
He also said police academy recruits were sent home and that only those who were farther along in their training can come back later in April and graduate by June 26.
Even though the San Jose Police Department is short-staffed, crime in the city has decreased compared to last year, Garcia said.
“We compared the time frame this year to the same time frame last year to try to get a sense as to crime trends during the shelter in place,” Garcia said. He said violent crimes last year were higher because residents are sheltering in place this year.
In 2019, Garcia said, 341 violent crimes were committed in San Jose, compared to 255 in 2020.
Apart from responding to crimes, Garcia said the eight officers who run the compliance cars and check up on businesses that are non-essential and should be closed responded to 1,537 calls in the last few weeks. He said calls from grocery stores have spiked with 112 calls, while construction sites called 103 times within the same weeks.
However, police officers have not reported many cases of breaking the shelter-in-place order.
“So far to date, we’ve only had to give out three citations,” Garcia said.
Emergency housing
San Jose City officials are also working on finding and allocating emergency housing sites for homeless people who might not have a space to socially isolate.
“Since last Tuesday, when the city council allocated state homeless housing funds to build emergency transitional housing to address the pandemic and the homeless shelter crisis declaration, we moved quickly to develop the first site at Monterey [Road] and Bernal [Road],’’ Deputy City Manager Jim Ortbal said.
According to staff reports, the Monterey and Bernal Road site has the potential to contain up to 40 units of transitional housing.
Ortbal said the Federal Emergency Management Agency also sent 105 trailers, now located at Kelley Park, to house homeless people.
City staff said the amount that each state will receive in aid depends on U.S. Census data and population. California is expected to receive $15.3 billion.
“Today, we did submit our first application for part of these relief funds,” Ortbal said. “The portal included no guidance on methodology for disbursement of funds, or a guidance on what the funds could be used for.”
In addition to city officials’ efforts to relieve the homeless, Santa Clara County placed sanitization stations around the community.
Ortbal said these stations include portable toilets with a hand-washing station.
“[There is a] tremendous amount of work between the housing department, Public Works, city, real estate and the city manager’s office to bring on as many emergency transitional units during this emergency as possible,” he said.
