Two police substations will be opened in South Stockton after City Council approval amid concerns about cost and whether they will make best use of the city’s thin force of officers.
One will be in the Sierra Vista Housing Authority building at 1648 E. 12th St. The other in a Weston Ranch shopping center at 3526 Manthey Rd. Both will be staffed by police officers or other department personnel with the idea that it will allow the department to better connect to local issues and make contact with the people they protect.
“We’re getting back to community policing,” said Vice Mayor Jason Lee, the chief proponent of the idea. Both substations will be in his 6th Council District.
Residents voiced support. “We really do need this in our community. We are tired of our youth being shot,” said Yolanda Amen, a planning commissioner.
Another Stocktonian, Pat Barrett, lamented the lack of casual contact that most people have with officers. “We don’t have that rapport. We need that,” she said.
Those kinds of sentiments, along with the notion that effectiveness could lead to substations being expanded to other districts, was enough to convince the City Council it was a good idea. It voted 6-1 Tuesday night in favor with only Councilmember Brando Villapudua opposed.
Substations will be costly. Sierra Vista is budgeted at $778,430 a year and Weston Ranch at nearly $1.1 million. But since they both largely use existing staffing, the net increased annual cost to the city would be $150,000 to $170.000. Staff indicated funding can be squeezed out of the budget.
Stockton has had police substations in the past. One opened in Weston Ranch in 2006, but was closed two years later when the city was on the financial skids. Substations also run counter to the idea that officers are more effective when they are rolling through the streets or getting out of their cruisers to strike up relationships with locals.
“Rolling visibility is a huge deterrent” to crime, Police Chief Stanley McFadden said. Plus, “most officers don’t want to sit behind the a desk.”
As envisioned, the substations, will be a bit of a hybrid. Besides having office space, both substations will be assigned police cars.
At the time, the council heard warnings from McFadden that substations will tap officers from other duties. His plan is to assign “strategic officers” — those currently doing special tasks like homeless camp cleanups or busting up illegal late-night automotive “sideshows.” He said it won’t affect patrol officers, the ones who respond quickest to 911 calls.
But even at that, McFadden expressed concern about having enough personnel. The city has built its force to 370 officers, but it’s still well shy of the 425 authorized. Two officers are to be assigned to each substation.