Cop Out

Vacancies in the police department raise questions of money, public perception

The Santa Fe Police Department says it's stretched pretty thin.

Twenty-eight officers short of where Chief Andrew Padilla wants to be, SFPD's vacancy rate has driven a frequent question at City Council meetings, where councilors often ask about the situation and Padilla typically replies that the department is hemorrhaging officers to the Albuquerque Police Department down the road.

Another part of the problem, though, according to the chief, is that nobody wants to be a cop anymore.

An understaffed force could have serious impacts on officers' well-being if they're spread too far across the city, according to Padilla.

"Officer safety is a priority Many calls for service that are high-risk or dangerous situations call for two officers, three officers," Padilla tells SFR.

On a recent ridealong, SFR witnessed two high-priority cases, one drug overdose and one involving a suspect in a stabbing. In both cases, multiple officers responded.

With 149 officers (some of whom are detectives or commanders), and aiming for 177, Santa Fe has an above-average number of officers for a city its size. Most cities have, according to an analysis of FBI data, 16.6 officers per 10,000 residents. With Santa Fe's population, 139 officers would put the City Different at the national average; so, even understaffed, SFPD exceeds it. If it met its goal, the police department would have slightly more officers per 1,000 residents than Las Vegas, Nevada, and almost twice as many as Boise, Idaho. The department did not respond to a question about how it arrived at its 177 goal.

But why is the department having trouble filling its vacancies?

"It's a tough time to be a police officer," Padilla says. "You're highly scrutinized. Pretty much everything you do is recorded, either on video or audio. You have to make split-second decisions, and everyone likes to armchair, Monday-morning quarterback. The media portrays a certain angle or plays a tidbit of information, good or bad, the officer is hounded for it or praised for it."

Scrutiny on law enforcement personnel has grown in recent years, following numerous high-profile killings by officers. But increased scrutiny doesn't necessarily lead to lower rates of applicants eager to put on the uniform. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 7% growth rate of police and detectives between 2016 and 2026, a rate the bureau reports is "as fast as average."

Nor does scrutiny necessarily indicate colder feelings toward the police; Gallup polls consistently find that Americans have more confidence in the police than almost any other institution; 54% of people say they have either "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of respect for police, surpassed only by small business and the military.

A more likely reality is that the Santa Fe PD just doesn't pay enough. The department has been shedding officers, often to the less-stingy Albuquerque Police Department. The much tighter housing market in Santa Fe could also contribute to the problem: Many officers live in Albuquerque and commute to Santa Fe.

"Here locally, it's been very competitive regarding pay," Padilla says. "Albuquerque Police Department changed the game a couple years ago when they said they were going to raise their hiring rates. And they did, so we lost a big group of officers down to APD, and we're still trying to recover."

Santa Fe Deputy Chief Ben Valdez declined to provide the names of any of the officers who left for Albuquerque, citing confidentiality issues and adding that APD would be the only ones who could approve interviews. An APD spokesman did not make any officers available for interviews.

The pay difference is stark. A new recruit in Albuquerque makes a starting rate of $29 per hour, according to APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos, compared to $19 an hour earned by an entry-level officer in Santa Fe. A sergeant in Santa Fe makes $31 per hour, whereas the same position in Albuquerque pays $35 per hour.

Padilla says he hopes to change the situation sooner rather than later.

"There's no hard deadline. We're in it now, but hopefully it'll all be resolved within 60 days," Padilla says.

In an attempt to stop the bleeding, the Santa Fe Police Officers Association signed off on a series of pay increases last week that will focus on patrol officers—the ones, in the department's view, who are most at risk of leaving for greener pastures, according to a news release issued by the city. If the City Council approves the plan at its meeting this Wednesday, starting officers' pay will jump to $22 per hour.

The move follows a measure passed by the City Council in January that provided a retention bonus to officers who promised to stay with the department until after the new contract is approved. That bonus totaled $600,000, and netted individual officers about $4,700.

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