On this day that San Diego remembers the life of a fallen police officer, one year ago, there are new calls being made to for the city to do more to address a shortage of cops in San Diego.
Officer J-D DeGuzman and his partner were shot after pulling over to talk to a man with ties to local gangs. A few moments later DeGuzman was dead, his partner seriously wounded.
His funeral brought thousands of police officers from around the country to San Diego with the shooting coming during a time of increased tension in the U-S about officer involved shootings and increased attacks on cops.
The criticism of cops and an increase in assaults on cops have been named as some of the reasons for a shortage of police officers in the city of San Diego. But only some of the reasons. What cops in San Diego are paid compared to other police departments also is a reason.
And this shortage of cops is not new. In a commentary in the Voice of San Diego, SDPOA president Brian Marvel points out that back in 2006, then mayor and former police chief Jerry Sanders declared a police staffing emergency in the city. And the police officers association head says staffing today is at least 100 cops shy of what it was then and getting worse.
Marvel writes that It’s time to analyze this critical problem and its impacts so city leaders can come up with the right solutions.
Most San Diegans who depend on police to protect them, their families and their neighborhoods would probably agree.
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