Police seeks new area-commander lieutenant amid 14 vacancies; Measure H funds support staffing

Modesto's police department told the Finance Committee April 20 that it plans to reclassify existing vacant positions to add a fourth area commander and continue investments funded in part by Measure H.

"We're proposing a total staff of 383 positions," Chief Gillespie said, and later noted that "75 positions are funded through Measure H." He described the area command model as a community-oriented policing structure and said the additional lieutenant would improve neighborhood engagement and coordination of crime-reduction resources.

To create the lieutenant slot the department proposed converting one vacant police officer position and one police officer recruit slot to a lieutenant for the fourth area command. Gillespie emphasized the positions to be converted are currently vacant and said he does not expect the change to reduce frontline officer availability given current vacancy and academy schedules.

Gillespie also told the committee the department currently has 14 sworn officer vacancies and about 30.5 professional (non-sworn) vacancy equivalents. He said filling those vacancies remains a top priority and that recruitment, retention and academy scheduling will determine how quickly staffing levels improve.

The chief highlighted technology and alternative response investments funded after Measure H, including license-plate readers and a real-time crime center, and said those, along with non-sworn personnel and park rangers, help free sworn officers for priority duties.

Committee members pressed for clarity about the vacancies' causes (Gillespie said retirements are the principal factor, not lateral losses), the status of the Sky One air unit (engine replacement underway) and the relationship between enhanced code enforcement and police crime-reduction teams. Gillespie said the city has expanded code enforcement from four to 12 positions since the police took on that function, and he explained how crime-reduction teams work with code officers.

The committee did not take formal action; the staffing changes were presented as part of the draft budget and will be subject to adoption as part of the broader budget process.