Politics & Government

Budget Cuts, Layoffs Hit Police Monday

Six dispatch positions eliminated, service outsourced with South San Francisco and facility hours reduced.

On Monday, Oct. 3 services will be cut at the .

Five dispatchers along with a dispatch supervisor—the entire dispatch department—will be laid off, as will one records clerk, and the department’s only administrative assistant position will be reduced to half-time.

, along with the elimination of a captain position (already vacated by newly appointed Pacifica Police Chief Jim Tasa) and a 10 percent cut in all department discretionary spending make up the $630,000 in police spending reductions included in the the City Council passed earlier this spring.

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“It was a very difficult choice, but we did not want the cuts to affect the number of police officers on the street,” Pacifica Police Chief Jim Tasa said.

Pacifica will contract dispatch services through the South San Francisco Police Department going forward. This transition, which both Pacifica Police Department and South San Francisco Police Department have been working on since May, has been complicated, police say.

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“There are a lot of intricacies involved with a large scale switchover that we are completing here,” Pacifica Police Captain Dave Bertini, who is in charge of the contract with South San Francisco and transition, said. “We had to address everything from radios to phones, computer systems to paperwork flow, hours of operations to how officers would be dispatched over the radio.”

Dispatchers from South San Francisco also went on “ride-alongs” with Pacifica Police officers in order to familiarize themselves with both the turf and their future colleagues.

The public will likely see a difference in service following the transition as well. Perhaps most noticeable will be the fact that the Pacifica Police Department station on Highway 1 will no longer be open 24 hours a day. After Oct. 3, it will be open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday’s from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“We will be closing the police department building after hours and on weekends, and all normal police business will need to be conducted during regular business hours,” Cpt. Bertini said.

Pacifica Police have detailed other changes the public may notice following the transition:

  • “After hours, anyone who comes to the Police Department will need to use an intercom system and speak to dispatchers at the South San Francisco Police Department.”
  • “Ticket Sign Off’s will be done during normal business hours when the police department is open to the public.”
  • “Registrants will be able to register during normal business hours.”
  • “Abandoned vehicle complaints will be forwarded to a voice mail recording system and will not be taken by a dispatcher or records clerk.”

Pacifica Police have indicated that they don’t anticipate any changes in the quality of their work, however.

“In the end, we will continue to strive for the same level of service and professionalism that the residents of Pacifica have come to expect from their police department” Chief Tasa said.

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