Chula Vista's Police Officer Shortage Impacts How DUI Officer Does His Job

>> For years, the Chula Vista Police Department has been mentioned whenever police salaries come up, last year they ranked number one in the county on monthly salaries for new recruits. But it seems the problem for Chula Vista please is not the number on their paychecks, it's the number on their payroll. They find that the city's Police Department has been understaffed for decades. With the lowest officer to resident ratio in the county. That is led to some awkward and potentially dangerous situations for the departments one and only DUI enforcement officer. He is the subject of a recent article by my guest San Diego Union Tribune reporter Gustavo Solis. Gustavo, welcome. >> Thank you. >> How does having only one DUI officer actually work in Chula Vista? Does he make arrest on his own? >> He makes arrests on his own, but to make them, he has to wait for partners to arrive, he only has a partner one day a week that he works. That's through a grant funding. >> How does he wait for that? What other officers are going to be responding, where are they going to be pulled from? >> It depends really are. In the article, we were writing in the east of the 805, where at any given time there are only four patrol officers over there. So, if the DUI officer stops someone, he has to call and wait for one of those for officers to drop what they are doing and go to where he is at >> Who is this one and only DUI officer in Chula Vista? >> His name is Rex, he has been in the Chula Vista department for many years now, he has gone through many training for identifying people who are under the influence, different ways of stopping and talking to people. Knowing what kind of substance they are being influenced by. >> You write about a recent crass scene that you attended with officer Ali Vick and where he had to stop the suspect to already wandered away from the scene, tell us about that. >> That's right, the subject was actually walking back to the scene, it was a hit and run, when we arrived the vehicle was there and there was no driver around. So, we went to the home of the driver, and found the suspect walking back towards the scene. The officer, suspected that alcohol was related because there was an empty flask of Bacardi in the car, in the drivers seat and when we saw him, he just stopped him and asked, hey are you okay, were you involved in the crash, asked him if he was injured? After that he had to wait 20 or 30 minutes for his partner to arrive. So Oluvic knew if he asked for sobriety checks, there was a chance that the man would run away, or become violent or aggressive, so he chose to wait for a partner to arrive in case something like that happened. While he waited, he asked him if he was injured, just about his personal life if he had any kids, what his job was. What the day would like for him? Just chatting. I was a spending time next to him and I did not realize he was installing until maybe 20 minutes after he began pit >> Now, how did this understaffing problem develop in Chula Vista? >> According to the police department, it stems from the great recession. They had to cut the staff of sworn officers and civilian officers during that time. They just have not recovered from it. >> Even though the city has managed to keep its police pay up, at least in comparison to other cities around the county, and had to cut staff in order to meet shrinking budgets? >> That is right. So, they had in 2007, they had 259 sworn police officers. 2017 they had 232. And then during that time the population of Chula Vista grew substantially. And when they made cuts, they didn't make them across the board, they may them to specific departments. And the two most hit were traffic, which is why there is only one DUI officer, and school resource officers. In Chula Vista, there are 64 public schools and only eight school resource officers. >> What you say makes sense because, the shortage of officers seems not to have had an impact on the city's violent crime rate. But, it has had an impact on traffic related issues. >> It really has. If you look at the number of traffic related injuries, it has gone up by 28% in the last 10 years. It also has probably most impacted the amount of time it gets for officers to get to calls, not priority one or priority two calls, the most serious ones but people routinely wait hours for priority three or four calls so that is you think somebody broke into your house. And there is no one there. So for police to go in there and take the report, you have to wait for multiple hours before anyone gets over there. Or if there is a traffic violation, like someone parked in a bike lane or something, it will be hours before an officer has time to get over there. >> There is a sales tax increase on the June ballot in Chula Vista, is that specifically to increase police stopping? >> That's what the city Council says it is for. It will go if it passes, it will go into the general fund but it will not be a specialty tax because the threshold to vote is lower for the tax increase. Along with the tax increase, they have passed some sort of an expenditure plan for the money they say they are going to have independent auditors and make the money that is going towards hiring more police and firefighters. >> Now, despite the odd situation he is in, apparently officer Oluvic is keeping an upbeat attitude, does he look forward to having more officers working DUI? >> Oh definitely. He is a younger officer compared to some of the other ones in the force but even a lot of them in Chula Vista they have been understaffed for so many years that this is their normal way of operating. Before we went out on patrol, we stopped by the offices of the traffic unit and there is just empty desks, empty offices. You can see what the staffing levels used to be and what they built it for, and how empty it is now. I think officer Oluvic would obviously love to have more people in traffic and east of the 805. I think everyone would. Frankly. >> I have been speaking with San Diego Union Tribune reporter Gustavo Solis, and Gustavo, thank you. >> No problem, thank you for having me.