Report finds SD needs more money for police

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 6, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

A new study from the state controller's office bolsters evidence that the city of San Diego needs to find more money for law enforcement. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diego's Center of Policy Initiatives, a thinktank that advocates for working families, says the State Controller's figures show the city of San Diego has decreased spending on police since the year 2000, while its population has increased.

CPI Spokesman Paul Karr says one consequence is that San Diego has the highest ratio of reported crimes per police officer of all California's large cities.

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Karr: "It demonstrates pretty clearly that we need to look at new revenue sources, cos although crimes may be falling, the number of officers we have on staff - their work load is too much."

Eight percent of police positions are unfilled in San Diego, as officers quit to move to other cities. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders will announce a police recruitment and retention policy soon, but the city's tight budget means the policy won't include higher salaries. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.