The San Jose Police Department is seeing fewer recruits, and those in training are dropping out or failing at the highest rate since 2021.
San Jose started its latest police academy class in June with only 28 recruits—the smallest class since 2019, according to city data. The prior class which graduates in September lost 17 out of 37 police cadets—nearly 50%—of its recruits during the training program, San Jose Police Officers’ Association officials said this week.
The small number of recruits joining the academy—and ultimately, the police force—is sounding the alarm for union leaders, who said the trend will worsen the ongoing heavy workload and long response time in San Jose.
“This is very alarming,” police union board member Cat Alvarez told San José Spotlight. “When I go on patrol, it feels like trying to empty a sinking ship with a bucket that has a hole in it.”
City spokesperson Kristen Van Kley acknowledged the high rate of attrition with the current class, but noted recruits left because of a number of reasons, ranging from family emergencies, personal illness and injury to failing their trainings.
“San Jose Police Department does as much as possible to support each participant’s training and to ensure their successful completion of the program, including offering additional training and opportunities to re-test,” Van Kley told San José Spotlight. “However, it is ultimately the responsibility of the individual recruit to pass each element of their training to graduate from the academy and begin the field training officer program.”
Mayor Sam Liccardo’s office deferred questions to the city.
The small class size—coupled with an unprecedented number of officers looking to resign—will further hurt the law enforcement agency, the union said. SJPD is already the most thinly-staffed law enforcement department of any major U.S. city, according to the city and the union. The union is in contract negotiations with the city, where officers are asking for a 14% raise over the next two years.
The union said the chronic staffing shortage in San Jose, exacerbated by the increase in the city’s population and calls for service, has led to mandatory overtime and long 911 wait times. San Jose spent $47 million in overtime pay in 2020, according to the city’s audit.
In early 2019, SJPD’s academy had three classes, with 43, 53 and 49 recruits, respectively. At least 66% of recruits in each class made it through the academy that year. The next two classes in 2020 recruited 51 and 55 people, respectively, with a little over 56% joining the force.
That changed in 2021. SJPD hasn’t seen a class with more than 42 recruits.
Alvarez, a San Jose police officer of 25 years, has been training new recruits for a number of years. She said the dwindling number of people wanting to join the local police force stems from the difficult work and non-livable wage.
“I had two people who were supposed to enter the academy but they went to Redwood City and Santa Clara PD because they’re getting paid more,” she said. “Why work here in San Jose, where the crime rate is a lot higher, when you can work for a nearby city where you can actually get paid more and (deal) with less crime?”
Fewer people joining the academy—and staying—equates to less officers on the job, Alvarez said, adding the city needs to be more competitive in pay to attract qualified candidates.
“If you want people to actually stay here at this department and not go to other departments that are very close by, then you have to pay them more,” she said.
More dispute on staffing level numbers
Union leaders also renewed their criticism over the city’s calculation of SJPD’s vacancy rate. They disputed a number published by the city, saying 36 recruits started in a class last June instead of 32. San José Spotlight reviewed a city document confirming the union’s number.
The city and Liccardo claim SJPD has some of the lowest vacancy rates in the area—at 3.11%—with 36 open spots for 1,158 positions. The number includes 1,122 sworn officers—and 82 police recruits and those who are in the field training officer program.
Union leaders argue those in the academy should not be counted as full-time officers, as not all of them make it out of training to join the police force.
“(Councilmember Matt) Mahan and Liccardo point to their nonsensical low vacancy rate as if that matters when residents are waiting over 20 minutes for an officer to respond to a 911 call,” Alvarez said, adding the city counting those who have left the academy as current hires is disingenuous.
Mahan said the union’s concerns are part of its “aggressive negotiation” to increase wages.
The issue around police staffing levels has sparked back-and-forth between the two mayoral candidates, Mahan and Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez. Chavez has the police union’s backing, while Liccardo has endorsed Mahan.
“If the city wasn’t currently spending 15% of its general fund each year paying off the credit card debt that Cindy Chavez and her allies ran up when she was vice mayor, we would have hundreds of additional police officers today,” Mahan told San José Spotlight.
Chavez, who has promised to secure new funding to hire a significant number of new officers, said she’ll work with the department, the union and community to attract the most qualified recruits.
“We have to do an excellent job of reaching out and attracting the best and the brightest to want to work as a San Jose Police officer,” Chavez told San José Spotlight, adding she would utilize the local community college network as part of the recruitment efforts.
Contact Tran Nguyen at [email protected] or follow @nguyenntrann on Twitter.
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Be careful. Cindy Chavez does whatever the Police Union says. She would give them 20% raises if she could, and bankrupt San Jose.
What’s wrong with a 20% raise to those that put themselves in high stress situations day in and out?
DID U NOT READ THE FACTS Billy . . THE CITY OF SAN JOSE’S POLICE DEPT. HAS THE LOWEST PAY COMPARED TO ALL OTHER PDS IN SANTA CLARA CO. I CAN NOT SEE WERE THIS CITY IS SPENDING OUR MONEY ! ! ALL THE FEDERAL AND STATE $$$$$$ FOR WORTHLESS/HOMLESS PREFABS THAT ACCUALY COST HALF OF WHAT STRAIGHT BUILD COSTS.
GO ON LICCARDO TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN . .
OUR money is being shoveled to the useless housing department. A double-whammy of attracting more crime and less to spend on fighting that crime.
Shame, shame, shame on Liccardo. This all happened on his horrendous 16-year watch.
Cindy Chavez’s advocacy is: Yes for Union Power, Patronage and Payments(ie. Our Tax Dollars). But a Very Big NO for Police Effectiveness, NO for Victim Advocacy and NO for Removing Criminals from the Community.
Cindy Chavez (and Susan Ellenberg) just this week Voted Again to “DEFUND THE POLICE” – these defund policies, driven by small groups of radical elements, have failed across the nation and are being reversed by sensible leadership.
But Cindy Chavez is not an Advocate for the Community or the Victims of the Criminals that Chavez wants to put back onto our streets.
Cindy CHAVEZ Votes Soft-on-Crime, with criminal advocates and against the new Jail – https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-rethinks-plans-for-new-jail/
“Defund the Police” is not only accomplished by cutting dollars from a budget, but by making the “Work” of Policing Not Worth the Pay at Any Level.
Time to Term-Limit Out “Quarter-Century Cindy” Chavez, and elect someone else, someone New, with New Ideas, with New Energy, and someone that has not racked up decades of “obligation” debt to special interest groups and non-profits, And that is Matt Mahan.
Don’t let the self-serving and unaccountable Police Association set the public safety agenda for the nearly 1 million residents of San Jose or to extort public funds. If there is a shortage of trained officers, then the city should hire private security guards–or create an additional unarmed public safety department–to supplement the existing force of armed officers who are willing to stay. The supplementary safety and security personnel could be deployed to the routine and less risky situations and environments that current officers are used for now and that cost the city so much in overtime pay. We don’t need armed officers directing traffic on the streets or at the airport, responding to residents’ calls, providing security to large public events, etc.) Using a supplemental alternative, trained but unarmed force would free up the armed police for the more risky assignments that they are trained and already highly paid to undertake.
Another benefit of such a force would be that, unlike the San Jose Police Department, private or supplemental public security guards would be answerable to the elected city leadership and the city manager. As it stands, the San Jose Police Association is not answerable to the city and the city leadership has not been serious about police reform (https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-city-council-police-use-of-force-hiring-new-chief; https://sanjosespotlight.com/south-bay-leaders-quit-city-committee-decry-lack-of-focus-on-police-reform).
If the leadership is serious about public safety and security, as well as fiscal responsibility, it should not be blackmailed or extorted by the Police Association.
https://www.sjpdyou.com/for-applicants/additional-information/salary-benefits-pension $86k to train, $106k starting with spectacular pension. This seems livable.
Once again, the city continues to play games with staffing numbers and pretends things aren’t really that bad just because the police officer contract is overdue to be settled. It seems pretty clear to the average eye that if you want to attract and keep the top talent, then you need to offer a comparable wage and benefits package to other agencies. Sam is a tired lame duck figurehead who’s legacy is the destruction of public safety in SJ. When Cindy Chavez was on the city council, SJ was routinely the safest large city in the country, officers received comparable wages as other agencies and people actually wanted to work at SJPD. When you needed police or fire, the personnel and equipment would arrive within a few minutes after the 911 call. Now thanks to Sam’s failures, good luck getting your 911 call answered or having an officer respond unless it’s an emergency. Even then, the response time is WAY too long, almost double the amount of time it should take to get assistance. Sam’s self-picked lap dog Matt Mahan is not the answer to turn this around. The kid has no plan, no strategy, and no accomplishments in D10 in the 1.5 years he’s been on the job. A vote for him is a vote for rampant homelessness to continue, elevated crime rates to worsen, and misguided priorities from the mayor’s office. Nobody will want to live, work, go to school, worship, or even visit SJ if the policies are allowed to continue. Meanwhile, more officers will leave and the community will suffer for it.
SJPD already get 90% of salary in lifetime pensions with a guaranteed 3% COLA raise each year.
Did Cindy Chavez agree to up that to 100% of salary? or maybe 110% of salary?
Pay is not the issue – the issue is releasing criminals back into the community the day they are arrested for crimes. How can you maintain morale among a Public Servants when the work they do is not valued enough to actually follow through with prosecution, sentencing and jail time?
Will City Leadership have the backs of Law Enforcement when an encounter with a criminal goes sideways during a use of force incident? On May 30th, 2020, San Jose leadership did not appear to support police during riots, looting and arson attempts..
Would you expect the Garbage Collectors to be satisfied with their jobs if as soon as they finished their route the contents of the Garbage truck was dumped back along the streets?
Cindy Chavez is trying to shut down our jail, and not build the extension. She is letting prisoner out of jail. She wants to turn San Jose into San Francisco. She wants everyone to be FREE, even if they are criminals.
All this political rhetoric is useless. The facts are simple, under this mayoral administration crime has gone up and police staffing has plummeted. Not just here, but we live here so I can’t worry about the nation right now. My lhome is in a neighborhood that’s barely livable any longer. Clearly nobody at city hall pays attention to what we want the moment we’ve elected them, so I’m done. Our firm is shuttering it’s offices downtown and we are relocating out of state. We have $650mil AUM. Not the biggest fish but we’re no guppies either. The city of San Jose is dying on the vine. Without safety, nobody is coming to open our closing businesses. Without safety and business, there is zero future for the city. Mr Mahan promises to be the 3rd carbon copy mayor in a row for San Jose. The first two have allowed the city to crumble. I’m not voting for #3. In business we say, “Never throw good money after bad.” Seems pretty clear what’s wrong here. We need more cops. Period. We can pay them $ up front or we all pay $$$ on the backend. It’s basic math.
Follow the Money – Union Extortion of Taxpayers – aided and abetted by Cindy Chavez.
You only need to look to history to understand the symbiotic relationship between Cindy Chavez and the SJPD Unions.
“From 2000 to 2006, while Cindy Chavez served as a San Jose City Councilmember, San Jose raised police pensions from 80% to 90% of final pay, raised firefighter pensions from 80% to 85% of final pay, and added a guaranteed 3% annual cost of living adjustment.”
“In April 2000, Chavez Voted to Raise SJ Police and Firefighter Pensions from 80% to 85% of Final Pay.”
“In 2002, Chavez Voted for SJ Police and Firefighter COLA to guarantee at least a 3% annual raise.”
“In December 2005, Chavez Voted to Raise Police Pensions from 85% to 90% of Final Pay.”
“In February 2004, the San Jose Mercury News reported that the annual cost for San Jose public safety pensions was projected to TRIPLE over 3 years from $27.8 million to $75.6 million annually. Despite the increased costs, San Jose police and firefighters were “demanding the city increase the maximum retirement pay from 85% to 90%,” an increase that would add $24 million more in pension costs.”
“…the 90% cap police & fire unions seek is among the most generous in the nation, retirement consultants said.”
Sure go through the academy. Become a police officer in San jose !!! You will love it ??? BY the way ! As you start this great carrier as a police officer… crime ridden homeless free for All !!!! No bail revolving door jail ……. YOU as LAW enforcement …. GET TO WEAR THE HANDCUFFS !!! …While they allow NOW LAWS FREE FOR ALL ..while the safety of the citizens in this city continues the down hill spiral . Lawmakers COUNCIL here are FORCING POLICE OUT !! Going to get worse with this USELESS government .. THEY DONT WANT TO WORK HERE..
Cindy Chavez is almost head of the Police Union. That’s what it’s like. They have her in her pocket. The Mercury News editorials said she will give them and other unions many raises. They said she will bankrupt San Jose. And she does not want criminals put in jail unless the crime is VERY serious like murder.
My catalytic converter was stolen by a criminal who was arrested 4 times prior, and Cindy Chavez and Susan Ellenberg and their staff let them out of jail multiple times. Chavez and Ellenberg are DESTROYING San Jose and the county.
How many SJPD recruits left because of Liccardo’s vax mandate?
Indeed. Why weren’t the reasons the recruits left set forth in the article? If you don’t know why they’re leaving, you don’t know what to change or improve. I find it impossible to believe every recruit who left voluntarily was not asked why they were leaving. That is common practice. I’m sure some washed out for physical reason and perhaps others for psychological or attitude reasons. But did the intrepid journo even ask the question in preparing to write this article?
But Sam said everything is fine and SJPD gets paid SO much!
I don’t like criminals getting out of jail free, or the rotating door of the jail to begin with, but if California is gonna keep letting them out in the name of criminal justice reform, we’re going to need police officers to put them back in! On the Mayor’s watch crime has gone up and waiting for help has gone up too. This city used to be the safest around. Not anymore! Coincidence that the safe days happen to also be the days when Cindy was on city council? Nope. Voters made a choice 8 years ago and it’s failed miserably. Time to go back to being a safe city where you get the help you need when you need it, not hours later because there aren’t enough cops or firefighters around to address crime and wildfires. It’s amazing that only the Home Depot burned down and not everything around it. With so much grassland surrounding San Jose the city is primed to burn. And why are there so many burned areas near freeway off-ramps and overpasses?
Cindy Chavez is the one who advocates for letting all the criminals return to the community.
The “Safe Days” went away during the 2 decades that “1/4 Century Cindy ” has been dancing between the City and County payrolls.
Two dozen new cops every academy class. Will only take 50 more classes to have the number of cops this city actually needs. Severely under staffed department for a city this size. So unsafe for the population.
Every person in the community, when it comes down to it, wants more police. When the city takes the officers for granted, they will flock to other departments that treat them better (better pay, better polices, better moral, a public that publicly supports police). Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, the public will ultimately suffer with fewer officers. SJPD is statistically half as staffed as other metro cities around the country. Imagine how much safer the city would be with adequate staffing. Support the police so the city can thrive like everyone wants it to.
Adding more cops is a only small part of the answer. Cops rarely prevent crime. They arrive at the scene only after a crime has been reported, for the most part. They don’t just fortuitously drive by a crime in progress as seen on TV. One exception is an anti-gang unit that is embedded in the areas where gangs are most prevalent. But in our PC newly woke world you can’t do that any more because it’s decried as profiling or labeled racist. The stats of the location of crimes don’t lie, nor does the demographic makeup of the criminals. But the police have to make use of the data and shut out the noise from the defenders of the criminals. However, no matter how many cops a city has, if the judges are letting the criminals out on OR, and the DA’s stop charging certain “low level” crimes in the first place, respect for the law dissolves and soon disappears among both criminals and law abiding citizenry. Large companies like Walgreens closed a lot of stores in SF because of the blatant shoplifting. Do we want that to happen here?
This problem started with Chuck Reed taking away benefits for officers. And the problem has continued. SJPD is terribly understaffed and unable to perform the basic of services. Since a good majority of officers left, crime has risen, homelessness is out of control, and the City of San Jose is more unsafe than ever.
I am not surprised SJPD is losing so many officers in the academy and in the FTO program. It is extremely difficult to get through the Academy and to make it through the FTO program. Some new recruits have the best of intentions, but quickly realize law enforcement is not for them.
If you want to blame someone for the mess SJPD is in, blame Reed and his cohorts. They are the ones who started the problem. And they are the ones who continue the problem.
If you want change and a safer community, vote out the long term politicians and elect those who are more than mouthpieces for their own self interests.
This are the facts Mayor Reed mess the Police Department yrs ago . Now with all the Community on Patrol who are acting as police officer in neighborhood watch. They act like they went to school only 6 weeks of training I believe or 6 months community on Patrol (policing. Through the City of San Jose On March 31,2016 Ms. Davis Dev introduced this government policing to the city which she’s in charge along with other members. So they get paid half police wages , they hire 18yrs and up up to 4 ppl per officer . When the city is getting high in crime hardly any police officer on Patrol if so some are doing illegal policing allowing crime . Again we need more officers who have credentials not certificate of training having Google in soon we are in a Technology of Surviallance not to mention County board of directors approved back 6/2016 First drones Surviallance technology in the NATION with out thinking Russia , so why would officers apply when the County and City is not safe place for any of our communities if so more officers are underpay overwhelmed with short staff . Look around you crime prevention allows nextdoor neighbor watch to harass as well the community speeding in neighborhood that’ loud noise is a safety welfare and health concern , city regulation and County rules and is being violated by own community who are County employees and Blames City for it .. Over time this city will be a communist county under drones Surviallance technology every where.
Just like the side shows if Mental health gets reported to DMV why not suspended license for a year and label Lisence danger to society and those who watch as well danger to the public suspend Lisence with classes. Why always attack the innocent people and fix the real problem
I’m not surprised at the failure rate. I don’t think you’re going to find a lot of National Merit finalists applying.
The process of applying takes over z years. In the past San Jose made hiring trips to other cities. They found ways to relocate groups of officers and pay for the relocation
Indeed many groups would certainly relocate to San Jose for a career in law enforcement
Meanwhile while we are waiting for this input of hew officers keep in Mims certain areas do not get a response from the police at all. That is trezpaser/burglary calls and disturbance calls. They may be logged and put in the system. No one ever shows up.
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