SAN JOSE, Calif. -- An ongoing outflow of officers from an overstretched San Jose Police Department reached new depths with the revelation that nearly half the members of its latest graduating academy class are actively considering work elsewhere, mere weeks into their field training.
According to police sources, at least 17 of the 40 SJPD recruits who first got their badges in September are exploring jobs with other police agencies. A handful of those have already committed to other agencies.
The revelation is a troubling harbinger for a department already facing an exodus of officers amid plummeting morale amid a bitter and protracted battle with the city over pay and retirement benefits.
The sworn staff totals just more than 1,000 today, down from the 1,400 the force fielded five years ago, just before a string of layoffs, pay cuts and other austerity measures spurred massive yearly departures -- retirements and resignations. Nearly 100 officers a year have left during the past two years.
As of Oct. 3, the city has seen 84 departures with 11 more pending in 2013.
"We're in serious trouble," said Sgt. Jim Unland, president of the San Jose Police Officers' Association.
Police brass on Friday declined to comment on the issue.
The potential departure of the new recruits is particularly troubling because retaining them is one of the pillars of a proposal from Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilman Sam Liccardo to bolster the department by 200 officers over four years.
But that also would require the city and police department to find a way to stem the flow of officers leaving for presumably greener financial pastures in other Bay Area cities, five of which have chiefs who are former high-level SJPD commanders: Hayward, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Piedmont and Redwood City. If academy recruits start joining them, it could effectively turn SJPD into a de facto training ground for other police in the region.
"There's no magic to the retention issue," Liccardo said. "We all agree that increasing pay will retain officers. Police union leadership is preventing that process from moving forward."
Last week, the police union rejected a 3-percent raise offer and demanded the city double it to end the ongoing pay feud they blame for thinning the department's ranks, arguing officers are leaving at record rates because San Jose's pay and benefits are no longer competitive.
The councilman also pointed to the union's decision in August to host an informal recruitment fair for other agencies to talk to current San Jose officers. Unland said the union has to look out for its members and that the current climate suggests it might be working somewhere else.
The officers and other city unions are locked in a legal battle with the city over a 2012 ballot measure to reduce future pension benefits that the unions call illegal and city leaders say was needed to tame retirement costs that more than tripled over a decade and continue to rise.
While the agency spent upward of $170,000 to recruit and train each provisional officer, recent graduates learned only in the middle of their six-month instruction period that they would be hired under the new, less-robust benefit plan, which includes an older retirement age and lower overall payout.
"They're saying this place is a mess and there's other places that want me," Unland said.
But Liccardo says the days of retirement plans with unsustainable benefits can no longer be the norm, and will take political courage to reform.
"If the old benefits were in place today, (new officers) would have a bankrupt city by the time they retire, and their benefits would not be waiting for them," he said. "One thing I hope our officers recognize is that it's not us vs. them, it's both of us against the math. The numbers never worked and unfortunately not enough people had the courage to say so until recent years."
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