Facing lean budget, Petaluma police turn to grants

With traffic accidents on the increase, Petaluma police secured a $105,000 grant for enforcement and education.|

Few police units regularly encounter fatalities like their traffic divisions, and the Petaluma Police Department is hopeful a state grant might be able to bolster its efforts to increase safety as staffing shortages loom larger.

Earlier this month, the department was awarded a $105,000 endowment from the California Office of Traffic Safety, which will assist with a year-long enforcement plan and public awareness program, according to a press release. The funds are expected help with overtime hours attributed to staffing DUI checkpoints and patrols at problem intersections, as well as monitoring for violations like speeding, distracted driving and running stop signs.

However, executive staff members said there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to maximize this grant with the traffic unit cutting half of its seven-man staff recently, moving two motorcycle officers and one DUI officer back to patrol duty.

“Whether we’re able to spend all that money now that we’ve lost three traffic officers, we don’t know,” Lt. Tim Lyons said.

Police officials said they’ve seen an uptick in DUI arrests and collisions, distracted driving, and injury crashes. Over the last three years, deaths and injury collisions have gone up 60 percent, Chief Ken Savano said.

In 2017, Petaluma Police arrested 215 drunk drivers, according to traffic data provided by the department. This year they’re on-pace to surpass that total, with 197 arrests through Sept. 30.

In all, the agency received more than 8,900 traffic-related calls for service last year. As of Sept. 30, they’ve gotten 8,405 in 2018.

“We injure and kill way more people on our roadways than from crime,” Savano said.

Implementing the grant objectives will be a challenge with the PPD performing departmental triage in recent months to account for a shortage of 16 officers, a loss that had been projected for much of the year before becoming a reality on Oct. 1.

Police officials said as many as four officers left the department for a neighboring agency, citing an opportunity to receive higher wages. Seven officers are also out on injury leave.

To account for those losses, the PPD has been pulling staff from various task forces and specialty positions based on a series of factors. If the task force collaborates with county, state or federal agencies and had less of a presence in Petaluma, those officers were first to be brought back, Lyons said.

They specifically withdrew staff from the Auto Theft Task Force, Homeless Outreach Services Team, the traffic unit and the DEA.

Hiring brand new officers is a year-long process, which requires successfully completing the training academy – in addition to numerous examinations and interviews. Savano said there are currently three conditional offers out with another three candidates in training.

In the meantime, the PPD has had to halt multiple services to account for the shortages. Officers no longer respond to non-injury car accidents where vehicles are safely out of the roadway. They also don’t respond to misdemeanor thefts “with no identifiable evidence or suspect leads,” according to a press release from August. The department is unable to perform vacation checks, either.

All of the reassignments and service freezes have been done to make sure Petaluma’s patrol unit is able to properly police the community. This year, the PPD is averaging more than 5,100 calls for service each month, and is on track to surpass last year’s total of 60,140.

Since most of the incidents require patrol staff to respond, it’s a priority to keep that unit at a minimum 30 officers.

“That’s our foundation, our root,” Lyons said. “We need patrol officers to respond to everyday calls that just continually come in. Is a little extra to be able to sit and watch a stop sign? Do you really need that if there’s calls pending to go to other calls? That’s where we need to pull our resources.”

Naturally, the struggles are taking their toll on the 50 remaining officers, who are being pulled back from specialty assignments and are often forced to work overtime hours.

“When you’re missing 16 officer positions on the street, you’re definitely impacting staff,” Savano said. “Every unit, every team has been impacted by this shortage. They’ve all got their head up with a positive attitude, performing the work every day that needs to be done.”

The influx of traffic money comes as Petaluma residents digest recent headlines with six fatalities in three separate car accidents near the city. Over a six-day span during the first week of October, crashes on Valley Ford Road, D Street and Bodega Avenue underscored the importance of enhancing traffic safety.

The theory, Lyons said, is that drivers tend to be more responsible when they physically see officers out on the roads, checking for speeds, writing tickets and enforcing traffic laws.

“If I know they’re out there then I’m going to watch my speed,” said Lyons. “If people don’t see police, they’ll (take) chances a little more.”

(Contact News Editor Yousef Baig at yousef.baig@arguscourier.com or 776-8461, and on Twitter @YousefBaig.)

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