Fresno police need more money for staffing, union writes. City budget lobbying begins
The president of the Fresno Police Officers Association on Friday sent a letter to the Fresno City Council seeking additional funding for a severely understaffed department to combat the city’s soaring number of shootings and homicides.
Brandon Wiemiller, the union president, said in the letter that adding positions to the Fresno Police Department is not the solution. Fresno Police Department must be more competitive in recruiting and retaining officers, he said.
“An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure when it comes to recruiting quality candidates,” Wiemiller wrote.
Wiemiller referenced a recent pay study with 15 other similar departments where Fresno PD ranked 14 out of 15, only beating out Bakersfield. Meanwhile, Fresno police officers are working 15-hour shifts and completing the minimum training requirements as calls for service increase.
In his letter, Wiemiller said the union was concerned money from the American Rescue Plan wouldn’t go to the police department. In a phone interview with The Bee, he said he’d like to see the city offer officers better pay and benefits.
“The argument that Fresno can’t afford to invest in restoring the ranks of its police department is false on its premise,” Wiemiller wrote. “The reality is that Fresno cannot afford to continue down its current path.”
The letter comes ahead of the city’s upcoming budget hearings in June and after a year of nationwide calls for police reforms and “defunding” police departments. Fresno’s own Commission on Police Reform is just starting work to enact dozens of recommended changes. Wiemiller in his letter acknowledged those realities and said the community already is suffering from an understaffed department.
“To police in the 21st century, it is imperative that the police department is in tune with the citizens it serves. We have heard loud and clear that our community expects more from their officers, and we agree that they should,” he said. “We want Fresno police officers to be the most highly trained, competent, professional, and compassionate officers in the state.
“This increased crime, call volume, and understaffed police ranks makes taking time for positive community interaction impossible. It has also led to an unacceptable Fresno normalcy – Fresno citizens waiting several days, or even weeks, before police respond to a break-in of their home, car, or business,” he said.
Funding mechanisms
Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama already submitted his proposed budget to the city manager’s office and said the staffing needs are addressed in the proposal.
“Additional officers, equipment, and training are necessary to adequately police our city, and my asks reflect that,” Balderrama told The Bee. “Recruiting and retention are a high priority towards getting our police department where it needs to be. We currently have about 60 police vacancies and we lose three to four officers a month to retirement. In order to fill these positions and keep them here we must be an attractive and competitive agency.
“All of these specifics have been expressed to City Hall, and I feel confident I have their support to accomplish this,” he said.
Mayor Jerry Dyer said he asked Balderrama to provide him with an aggressive hiring plan to hire 120 officers over 15 months in the way Balderrama sees best fit, whether that means attracting lateral hires from other departments or maximizing the number of cadets he sends to the police academy. That will help fill current vacancies and address the outlook for upcoming vacancies in the next year or so, he said.
While Wiemiller specifically asked the council to use money from the American Rescue Plan to boost police funding, Dyer and city councilmembers said it’s unclear if that’s possible.
City staff gave a presentation to the city council recently that showed different potential funding strategies for the money, Dyer said. But so far the federal government hasn’t outlined the criteria for how the funding can be used.
“I appreciate the fact that FPOA sent this letter out making the council and my office aware of the increase in crime and need for not only additional resources but an increase in pay,” Dyer said. “But the reality is it’s premature for us to make any decision as to how those dollars will be used.”
Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Nelson Esparza said using money from the American Rescue Plan, one-time funding, is not the way to solve the problem.
“Allocating millions more in one-time funds without operational improvements will not result in faster response times and improved safety for our residents,” Arias said.
City Council President Luis Chavez said the city should have about $250 million from various funding sources to weigh.
Chavez said he would like to see funding go toward both crime suppression and prevention, meaning he would support better pay for officers along with programs such as Advance Peace and job opportunities for young people. Councilmember Mike Karbassi also said he accepts there’s other crime solutions, such as bettering parks through things like Measure P, which he opposed.
Dyer was clear that he supports boosting funding for the police department.
“I recognize as the former police chief the fact that we are significantly short on police officers in our city as well as other professional staff in the police department,” he said. “It is my priority as the mayor to make sure we restore the police department so they can keep folks safe in Fresno.”
Public safety, including the police and fire department, already account for two-thirds of the city’s general fund. Over the last few years, the police department’s budget routinely increased.
“There’s not a minute off in the year for police work,” Wiemiller said. “It only make sense we consume a better part of the budget.”
Competitive salaries and benefits
The pay study Wiemiller referenced in his letter compared Fresno Police Department to the following departments: Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, the county of Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Riverside, Long Beach, Sacramento, the county of San Diego, Stockton, the California Highway Patrol, San Diego, Bakersfield and Clovis.
Fresno was nearly last for pay and benefits, only scoring ahead of Bakersfield, Wiemiller said.
The city already offers a $10,000 signing bonus to officers from other departments who choose to make a lateral move to Fresno PD.
Councilmember Garry Bredefeld said a police officer’s job is more dangerous now in the current environment due to short staffing and “anti-police rhetoric.” Recruiting and retaining the most qualified officers must be a top priority, he said. “It is with me.”
Karbassi said he plans to propose during budget hearings to increase that signing bonus and offer an incentive for officers to live in the city limits.
Those are things both Dyer and Chavez were interested in pursuing. Dyer said he has even talked with home builders about offering incentives to officers to live in Fresno.
“It is definitely time to get creative when it comes to recruiting police officers, especially in this environment we’re operating in,” Dyer said.
Arias pointed out that FPOA was the only unit to receive a 5% pay bump last year.
“The recruitment challenge is bigger than money,” he said. “Minority police cadets are choosing other jurisdictions. That is why it was important to address the Proud Boys incident.”
Ashley Rojas, executive director of Fresno Barrios Unidos and a member of the Commission for Police Reform, agreed.
“Law enforcement as a system seems to struggle with self awareness and self interrogation. How do the policies, practices and culture of law enforcement impact their recruitment and retention outcomes?” she said. “Why are there glaring racial, gender and sexual orientation disparities in the profile of a ‘successful’ law enforcement officer? Why is diversity such a struggle?”
More funding after calls to defund and reform?
Wiemiller said Balderrama has sent a clear message to the department that officers need to slow down on police work, resulting in a culture shift that’s also further strained by low staffing.
“In this new age of policing, there’s a lot more expectations, and what that means in the reality of field work is that we’re taking our time on calls more,” he said. “We’re asking officers to take a breath, assess the situation, utilize their resources, don’t feel you have to rush into anything so that conflict can be avoided and we can resolve situations with a peaceful outcome.”
Rojas said more law enforcement is reactive to issues of safety, and proactive measures are needed.
“Community, in many forums, has advocated for community-led alternatives and the development of a robust, multi-sector strategy to generate safety and cultivate prosperity,” she said. “Law enforcement is not a generative strategy and cannot repair root-cause issues impacting our community. They can only react to the climate. We need preventative strategies that invest into our people, places, and equitable opportunities for all, and most importantly for those most systemically and historically adversely impacted by race-based economic oppression.”
While Dyer said he has never supported “defunding the police” or reducing the police budget, he agreed some responsibilities such as mental health calls should be shifted away from the police department. Still, the staffing issue will remain, he said.
Sandra Celedon, CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities and the vice chair of the Commission for Police Reform, said it’s “shameful” for the police department to ask for more money during a pandemic when the department already makes up the largest portion of the city’s budget.
She called for more investment into other community health efforts, such as parks and green space, increased job opportunities, healthy and affordable housing, and accountability for officers “who continue to take the lives of Black and Brown people.”
“And the people agree,” she said. “On several occasions, community members have made it clear that community safety requires investment in things that truly keep us safe. Fresnans have long subsidized out-of-control budget increases for police with little return on investment. It is time to put that money back in (the) community and improve Fresno for everyone, not just a few hundred people who happen to be cops.”
Meanwhile, Dyer called on elected officials and the community to show their support and appreciation for officers.
“There’s been a lot of scrutiny and criticisms of law enforcement in general. Many of the police officers do not feel they’re appreciated,” he said. “It’s important they know we as a community, whether it’s elected officials or community members, that we demonstrate our support of our police officers while at the same time recognizing the need to hold police officers accountable who should not be in the profession.”
This story was originally published May 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.