Police recovering from period of low staffing

BARSTOW — The Barstow Police Department is close to a full force after a period of low staffing and wants to add five more officers in next year’s budget.

The department currently has 33 of its 38 sworn officer positions filled, including management positions, city spokesman John Rader said, and only one position is still open. Three officer candidates are currently going through background investigations and two more are expected to graduate from police academy in the summer — one of whom is counted in the 33 sworn officers since the department is paying for the academy training.
Police Chief Dianne Burns stated via e-mail that she expects all slots to be full by June.

Since January of 2007, the department has hired 10 officers and 13 have left for various reasons, including retirement, Rader said. Two probationary officers were fired before the end of their year-long probationary period for failing to meet department standards. Another officer was fired during the same time period. The police department did not release names or the reasons for their firing, citing personnel confidentiality.

The other 10 officers left the department voluntarily, Rader said.

Of those, eight officers left the department in a four-month period between April and August 2007, Burns said. Burns was sworn in as chief in July 2007.

“When you lose 20 percent of your sworn staff in a four-month period, it obviously has an impact on staffing,” she said. “However, in a very relatively short period of time, the Barstow Police Department was back up to near full staffing levels.”

Burns said that she would like to get the department’s staffing up to 50, but because of state budget cuts, only asked for five more officers in the next budget cycle.

“If we could have a couple of new positions each year, that would help substantially,” she said.

Staffing levels will be worked out as part of the city’s budget process in the next month and presented to the City Council for approval.

Police department numbers

Barstow Police Department officer positions authorized by the city: 38
New positions the department hopes to add in 2008/2009: 5
Sworn officers currently on staff: 33
Officers hired since January 2007: 10
Officers who have left since January 2007: 13

Did you know?

It costs $3,000 to put an officer through police academy. Barstow Police Department Chief Dianne Burns said the majority of officers hired in Barstow have paid for their own training or had completed the academy previously with another agency.

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