As possible cuts loom in the Hollister Police Department’s near
future, the police chief anticipates increased crime and a strong
reliance on community volunteers to keep Hollister safe.
As possible cuts loom in the Hollister Police Department’s near future, the police chief anticipates increased crime and a strong reliance on community volunteers to keep Hollister safe.
The bottom line for Hollister’s Police Department looks bleak, according to Chief Jeff Miller. The department will most likely lose six positions in the coming fiscal year – four sworn and two non-sworn officers, he said.
“For a community this size, we should be at about 50 cops sworn,” Miller said. “In July we’ll be at 32. Frankly, it’s going to be some tough times.”
Tough, yes, but things could be worse, he said.
“The real worst case scenario would be (the department) loaded with a group of people who don’t care about the community, but we’re not,” he said. “Worst case scenario is where we lose good cops to other communities because we’re no longer able to sustain them because of more cutbacks; because of circumstances beyond the department’s control.”
Of the six positions that could be cut, three were already frozen. But the city will lose a training sergeant position, a multi-service officer and a police services officer, Miller said.
Cutting a sergeant position will mean reducing a sergeant in rank to an officer and the effect will snowball through the force, resulting in the officer with the least seniority losing their job.
However, the biggest effect will be on parking enforcement, which Miller said will probably be eliminated completely. The school resource officer and internal department services will also see cuts. That will result in decreased lobby hours and office telephone communications, Miller said.
“Patrol has to be steady,” Miller said. “We can’t reduce the number of cops on the street for community and officer safety.”
While the number of officers on patrol won’t change, the different vacancies will have a round-about effect on enforcement, Miller said.
“It’s a domino effect,” he said. “When we take the school resource officer out of the schools that removes the police presence there, which could result in more issues on campus, which will result in more enforcement, which will take officers away from patrol time.”
The same holds true for the crime prevention position, he said.
“You either prevent the crime proactively or you go after it reactively,” Miller said.
By removing these positions, Miller anticipates crime will rise in coming years.
“We’re going to have a group of kids, a cohort, that will be rising up that won’t have had this contact with an officer,” he said. “Now we may see a spike in two or three years down the line because this cohort didn’t get that crime prevention attention and that concerns me.”
Miller hopes to save money in the budget by keeping the lobby open four hours a day, compared to the regular eight. However, it will have severe effects on the records staff. He said they will attempt to operate the records department with only two employees instead of the current three and a half.
“I’m amazed we’re keeping our heads above water with that. They have to process all the requests, the reports… everything connected with the DA’s office,” he said. “It’s great when the officers go out and make the arrests… but if we can’t process the paperwork, it’s all for naught. It’s gotta get to the DA and if we can’t get it there we’ve got no prosecution and the person goes free.”
When one of the two multi-service officers are cut, the department will only have one person to book evidence, ensure vehicles and the building are maintained, order supplies and perform numerous other duties for the force.
To combat the lack of manpower, the department hopes to use its Volunteers in Policing (VIPs). Citizens who recently finished the VIP academy are beginning assignments in different areas needing extra help within the department.
“Some will be assigned to the Juvenile Impact Program to help with the calls and organizing of that,” Miller said. “We don’t want to lose Juvenile Impact because it’s part of our gang prevention and intervention strategy.”
Between 20 and 25 community members are part of the VIP program and will slowly integrate into more facets of the department – from working with detectives to eventually helping impound cars, Miller said.
“It’s a little slow, but we’re taking carefully measured steps to make sure we get to where we’re going,” he said.
While making difficult cuts, the department has attempted to cut around the edges and keep the basic organization intact – continuing to look many years ahead instead of using a “hack and slash” technique to take care of the problems at hand, Miller said.
In doing this, when better times come around they can revamp quicker, he said.
However, if things don’t improve and the department is called on to make more cuts, Miller doesn’t know what else could be eliminated, he said.
“We were already at bare bones,” he said. “I have a few fears that if there are more cuts. there will be calls we will not go to. We’ll just have to tell people, ‘I’m sorry we can’t come out to your call.'”
