There has been a drop in police officers on the streets in Santa Ana since the last city budget was adopted. Reports from the department are that there are only a handful officers on the street at any given time. If you go to the page 2-78 of the budget, and look under field operations, which are the patrol officers, they have dropped thirty police officer positions – this is the most important division in the department!
On page 2-78 of the adopted budget you can see that there are thirty less officers in patrol now. There were 231 total officers in all ranks the previous and only 198 this year. If you look on page 2-62 you can see the number of authorized officers last year and the number under the new budget.
In 1985, almost 30 years ago, there were 385 authorized police officers (all ranks Chief on down). Today there are only 316 police officers (add the total of officers, sergeants, lieutenants, captains and the chief) accounted for in the general fund. The population was about 100,000 people less back then. It has grown tremendously since 1985.
Morale at the SAPD is reportedly so low that police officers are leaving as fast as they can for Anaheim and other agencies. And to make things worse there are about thirty SAPD police officers who are planning on retiring this year.
Where are the replacement officers going to come from? Nowhere. No one wants to lateral to the SAPD anymore and they are already short staffed literally beyond belief.
Special Investigations, the department that went after the gang bangers, has been totally eliminated. Guess who on the City Council was behind that? If you go to page 2-88 in the budget you can see it in print. No one is in that program – thirty five people eliminated including 29 police officers.
While the residents of this city are mostly unaware as to what is going on at the SAPD, I am told that the actual police officers are complaining daily to anyone who will listen.
All of this has happened since former SAPD Police Chief Paul Walters, who as our City Manager saved our city from bankruptcy, was fired by our City Council and replaced by David Cavazos, who makes more money than President Barack Obama. Whether or not our current Police Chief, Carlos Rojas, has a plan to get his department out of this mess is a very good question.
Tilly’s Life Center’s (TLC) recently raised over half a million dollars to support their youth…
On November 25, 2024, at approximately 1:46 PM, Fullerton Fire and Police personnel responded to…
OCFA fire crews responded to two significant vehicle accidents in Garden Grove last Friday, requiring…
On November 24th, 2024, at approximately 1:00 a.m. Newport Beach Fire Department units NE63, NT63,…
‼️UPDATE‼️ Earlier today, our robbery detectives arrested November 20, 2024, #WantedWednesday suspect Izaya Cuellar (35)…
Late Friday night, police officers responded to Balearic Park regarding a vehicle doing “donuts” on…
This website uses cookies.
View Comments
The council has to save money for the multi-million street car to nowhere!!!
Driving that train, high on cocaine
Miguel, you better watch your speed
Trouble ahead, trouble behind
And you know that notion just crossed my mind
Mr. Art Pedroza,
Lets define “Morale” the state of spirits of an individual or group, as shown in the willingness to perform assigned task, confidence, cheerfulness, and discipline. In my book this appears to be a state of mind and this state of mind may change from time to time. Police officer have plenty of discipline, confidence and willingness, what may change is the cheerfulness. This could be due to the work place, personal, medical reasons or the normal cycle of change itself. According to your article in the New Santa Ana named “Morale at the understaffed Santa Ana Police Department at an all time low.” I beg to differ. There will always be doomsayers in every career field from the average citizen to police officers, politicians and publishers as yourself who need readers. Doom sells.
The City of Santa Ana has a new Chief of Police, Carlos Rojas. Lets not forget that Chief Rojas inherited the police department with the staffing levels left by former Police Chief Walters. Chief Rojas is slowly addressing these issues with a well calculated plan but change from the old regime to the new regime was inevitable and absolutely necessary. I will cite a few examples of changes in general. The United State of America Armed Forces has downsized, corporations down size and police departments downsize in part due to economics, technology and a city’s financial health. These are no surprises.
There is mention that officers are leaving to other departments. The article makes it sound like there is a mass exodus. This is not the case but maybe a few officers may be looking and everyone is entitled to seek employment else where. But as the old adage clearly states “The grass may not always be greener on the other side.” For an police officer who wants to become proficient in numerous areas of expertise. There is no place like the City of Santa Ana in terms of activity. The article mentions officers retiring. Retirements occur in any professional field and law enforcement is no exception. Some officers retire due to medical, its time and or a change of profession.
The article is great material for doomsayers but to me the glass is always half full and I am ready to pour more in it. There is plenty of good at the Santa Ana Police Department from new hires, enthused police explorers, great officers and the Santa Ana Police Department Community Oriented Policing philosophy. Former SAPD Chief Paul Walters had an undeniably great run and with Santa Ana City Council support so will our current Chief Carlos Rojas.
I remain disappointed with Rojas on many levels and expect much more from him because he is a Latino. Yet it seems like business as usual at the SAPD.
And yes there are many good officers leaving although some of that is due to retirement.
Rojas was hired without the benefit of a real search so he now needs to step it up. And know that I have requested information from the department about response times. That will be posted as soon as we have received it and digested the information.
It's nice to see how this all comes down to race. If Rojas was African-American, would his performance be acceptable. How would you rate him if he was Asian? Or maybe your scale has him consistent with a Caucasion.
Perhaps you didn't get the memo but Santa Ana is a majority Latino town. I suspect that is why the all Latino City Council hired Rojas without properly searching for a candidate. But so far he is not showing that being Latino is going to make much of a difference.
You missed the point entirely. I think the Council hired him because he is a Latino. I wanted them to conduct a real search and would have been happy with a non Hispanic Chief.
Concession? Go make your own popcorn!
If elected 1St DISTRICT SUPERVISOR OC, I WILL SEEK A ROBUST POLICE FORCE THAT THE CITY OF SANTA ANA CAN BE PROUD OF. I WILL. WORK WITH RANK AN FILE TO EXPEDITE. SOLUTIONS TO ISSUES WITH IN THE DEPARTMENT. AND MORE IMPORTANT INFORM THE PUBLIC THE DAYS OF " POLITICAL CORRECTNESS " ARE OVER. NO ETHIC OR CULTURAL ISSUE WILL BE REGARDED ABOVE THE LAW. ALLL UNITED STATES CITY LAWS WILL BE ENFORCED. IF YOU WANT A GREAT CITY, ALL WE BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. AND IF CRIME IS REDUCED, I WILL STILL HAVE ROBUST SAPD.