2/1/2010 President's Message

Next month marks the one year anniversary of the tragic deaths of four officers in Oakland, California and three officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As if these horrific incidents were not enough, the law enforcement community suffered further losses with the assassinations of four officers in Lakewood, Washington and the ambush on two officers near Tacoma, Washington which resulted in the death of one officer. Last year was one of the most deadly years on record for law enforcement. As a result of these tragedies it time for us to revisit the need to focus on good officer safety tactics.

Last month marked the 20^th anniversary of the deaths of Officers Gene Simpson and Gordon Silva who were killed in the line of duty by a mentally ill person.( Let us not forget that Officer Robert White died in the line of duty on January 27^th, 1985.) This was the worst day in the history of the San Jose Police Department. For many years our department has been doing more work with fewer officers. Year in and year out you have been expected to maintain San Jose's status as the "safest big city" while our staffing levels dwindle and the City's population continues to rise. For the most part, these lofty goals have been accomplished by our willingness to ignore good officer safety tactics in order to provide the best possible service to the citizen's of San Jose. Following January's retirements and the pending retirements in June, our staffing will be reduced by approximately 100 officers. The San Jose Police Department will be working with the same amount of officers it had in the early 1990's with a population (over one million residents) that continues to grow. Our officer to citizen ratio is the lowest of any major city in the United States.

Now, more than ever, is the time for us to refocus our emphasis on good officer safety skills. First and foremost we need to fill with each other. All vehicle and pedestrian stops should have two officers. The principle of contact and cover is still very much alive! Do not drive past your brother or sister officer when they are alone on a stop. Fill with them so that we can adhere to the contact and cover principles. 952ing on a call requiring two officers violates a basic officer safety premise. Do not do it! Sergeants, let the call pend until you have sufficient resources available to safely respond to it and cancel any officer who valiantly wants to report on it by themselves. 1097 on a two officer response call is when at least two officers are present at the scene. Do not go 1097 while waiting down the road for your fill officer. Wait until your fill arrives before you go 1097. This is the time for you to discuss officer safety tactics and develop a plan to handle the call. In the case that you find yourself outnumbered by the suspects (which usually seems to be the case) don't take action until the numbers are in your favor. We have to be in a position to do our job safely before we can help others. Lastly, no matter where you are, or what you may doing, always be conscious of what is happening around you. What we learned from the Lakewood, Washington tragedy is that officers can be attacked and killed while having a cup of coffee in a local community diner.

On February 2, 2010 we will commence negotiations with the City's representatives for our contract which expires on June 30, 2010. Our negotiation team will be as follows: George Beattie, Jim Unland, Jeff Ricketts, Franco Vado, our esteemed Labor Attorney John Tennant and any other outside experts the team needs to negotiate a successful contract.

As always and most importantly, be safe out there.

George