SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas
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. Continue reading
