The Stockton Police Department hopes a pair of new substations in the city’s southern end will make them more visible and give officers a chance to mingle with the people they protect.
The city is on track to open two police substations in South Stockton later this year — one in Weston Ranch and the other near the Sierra Vista apartments. Authorities say they are considering opening a location in North Stockton as well.
The Weston Ranch substation could open by the end of July if a suitable location can be found, Deputy Chief Antonio Sajor told the Stockton City Council this week. The Sierra Vista substation would follow two months later under the tentative timetable. Sajor said he would return to the council in May with further details, including costs.
“We want to enhance the safety in South Stockton by fostering collaboration between the city departments and the community through innovative public safety, education and wellness initiatives,” Sajor told councilmembers during Tuesday’s informational update.
He said each facility would be more than just a police annex: “It is a place where the community can come and be part of community policing.”
The substations would be more than a base for officers, Sajor said. The idea is to invite more direct communication with residents, he explained.
On a list of six goals for the substations displayed at the council meeting — from educating residents to supporting youth — the bullet point for increased patrols and fighting crime was listed last.
Sabor noted that substations can have a social service aspect beyond policing; they can be a place to solve community problems. Sometimes an issue isn’t the kind of law enforcement task that police can solve, he said, but officers often can connect residents with nonprofits, agencies or other city departments to help.
“We’re going to teach people how to access those services,” Sajor said.
Choosing Weston Ranch for the first substation may help quell any lingering concerns about city services. Some dissatisfied residents in the middle-class neighborhood of tidy single-family homes launched a fledgling movement a decade ago to try to leave the city, KCRA News reported at the time.
Substations are also good at making residents more aware that police are close by, often resulting in less crime.
A study published in 2020 by the journal Criminology and Public Policy found that when a police substation opened in Newark, New Jersey, the increased presence of law enforcement in the community, coupled with increased enforcement, resulted in the reduction of certain crimes. Another study that looked at the effect of police stations in Montreal published in 2023 in Crime Science found that “concentrated policing” helped deter crime in a station’s immediate vicinity.
Stockton Councilmember Michele Padilla said the substation initiative underscores the importance of bringing citizens and police closer together.
“Even though I didn’t grow up with this type of community policing … I definitely know the importance,” she said. “As a teacher, I see what’s going on with the youth, and we need to change their mindset and let them know the police are here to protect them.”
Vice Mayor Jason Lee said that while policing in Stockton had its ups and downs in the 1990s, “we knew our officers.”
“We need to get closer to how it used to be,” Lee said.