Scott Knies, CEO of the San Jose Downtown Association, said the business group has been hiring SJPD officers to walk the downtown core prior to the program. She hopes the city will dedicate more officers in the downtown core. “I don’t think downtown is going to be revived until we can promise people that it is clean and safe.”īusinesses don’t want to move into downtown because of safety issues, Chien-Hale added. “This is going to be a significant change for the downtown core,” Elizabeth Chien-Hale, president of the San Jose Downtown Residents Association, told San José Spotlight. Months-long shelter-in-place orders led longtime businesses to close. With tech workers still working remotely, restaurants and bars continuing to suffer, and people are not comfortable walking downtown, a neighborhood association leader said. “It’s really a way to get the community and the police department working together and to understand each other.”ĭowntown leaders and residents are excited about the foot patrol program, calling it long overdue. The issue came to a boiling point in April after an unhoused person assaulted a San Jose Downtown Association worker while cleaning graffiti.ĭowntown San Jose’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has also been grim and economically lagging, a new city report shows. “When we have done walks with SJPD in the past, in our business corridors, they are always very well received,” Davis told San José Spotlight. The city also has plans to use data to prioritize high crime areas. The funding also includes $632,000 to purchase eight patrol vehicles, $186,192 in equipment for the new officers and $67,536 for other supplies, budget documents show.Ĭouncilmember Dev Davis, who has long called for more police officers, said the captains of each division will decide where officers will patrol on foot.
The city will rely on current officers to pilot the program this year. The City Council budgeted $900,000 in overtime funding to accommodate this first year need. San Jose expects the new officers to start patrolling in a year, as hiring and training will take at least 12 months, Aponte said. “Foot patrols are significant because, by design, they are made to interact on a face-to-face basis with community members, local businesses and visitors to the area,” SJPD spokesperson Steve Aponte told San José Spotlight. Police officials and residents hope the program will help law enforcement build relationships with the communities they serve, further advancing community-based policing. Increases in population and calls for service have also resulted in rising demand for police. The chronic staffing shortages in the department have intensified over the past decade from budget cuts. The San Jose Police Department is the most thinly-staffed law enforcement department of any major U.S. San Jose Police Department struggles to staff up
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