California's overall police force numbers are at their lowest in decades, with rural communities struggling the most to recruit officers, according to a new report from the state's largest law enforcement agency.

The analysis comes just months before Californians vote on Proposition 36, a ballot measure that would increase penalties for retail theft and drug offenses, leading to more arrests. The California Police Officer Research Association report suggests that more funding should be directed to help recruit and retain officers, especially to rural law enforcement agencies that are seeing an exodus of officers.

“We've been trying to push for more public safety research, especially with this year's election coming up,” said Brian Marvel, president of PORAC, which represents more than 80,000 law enforcement agencies and also supports Proposition 36. “November will be a critical time for the nation and California, as crime and perceptions of crime will be very hot topics.”

The PORAC ​​report states: Online Portal The survey was published by the California Department of Justice and covers only sworn police officers, including city police departments, sheriff's departments, the California Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies.

The report states: Police staffing The number of infections in the state is at a 30-year low, especially Rural Countiesand compared the number of officers per square mile in rural and urban police departments. The analysis found that some rural areas have severe staffing shortages and longer response times compared to urban areas.

Assemblyman Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose legislation often touches on public safety and prison issues, called the report “cherry-picking” and “misleading.” Bryan is concerned that the PORAC ​​report doesn't paint a complete picture of policing in California. The analysis didn't include a breakdown of the number of officers per capita.

“Obviously rural counties have fewer officers because they are less densely populated, but I don't think that tells the whole story,” Bryan told the Times. “The report doesn't highlight how much has been paid out in police brutality lawsuits, nor does it mention the money spent on military equipment. It tells the story the authors want to tell, but it doesn't tell a story that emerges from original, thoughtful and rigorous analysis.”

Some police departments with vacancies say officers are quitting because the job is mentally taxing, the hiring process is too long and there has been negative rhetoric surrounding policing in recent years, according to the report.

Most local police funding is controlled by local governments, but state funding is allocated to counties and cities each year to cover police, fire departments, corrections departments and district attorneys, according to Treasury Department spokesman HD Palmer.

Palmer said the five counties that received the most from the state last year were Los Angeles County, with $1.07 billion, followed by Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, each with less than $500 million.

While staffing shortages are felt across police agencies, city police department spending has increased year over year, according to spending data from the California State Auditor's Office.

To address these personnel shortage issues, ministries and agencies have offered hiring incentives.

Representatives of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office cited retirements and a lack of interest from young people in a career in law enforcement as reasons for the decline. The county is seeing deputies leave for neighboring counties that offer more competitive salaries. Mendocino County, population 100,000, 91,000 people, Between 2013 and 2023, 22 police officers were killed. Department of Justice Data.

In Merced County, where the local sheriff's office provides its own $10,000 contract bonuses, Sheriff Vern Warnke previously told The Times that the situation is so dire that even bonuses aren't enough to retain retiring officers. The county is expected to hire 111 new officers between 2013 and 2023.

Some of the state's best candidates for local departments have been hired by other agencies, including the Alameda Police Department, which had a high-profile job posting last year. Contract moneyA total of $75,000 will be paid per recruit to replenish officer staffing.

In San Francisco, where the police department has been criticized for being understaffed (461 officers will be lost between 2013 and 2023) and for its long response times, the Board of Supervisors this week Establishing student loan forgiveness for the city's sworn police officers.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department, one of the state's largest police forces, is seeing more officers resign than graduate from the police academy.

According to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, California cities spent more than $14.8 billion on policing in 2021, counties spent $7.5 billion and the state spent $2.8 billion on the California Highway Patrol. Temporary increase According to PPIC, crime trends in California's largest cities are declining for violent and property crimes in 2022.

PORAC's Marvel said the past few years have been tough on the profession, creating a vicious cycle of fewer new recruits and higher rates of attrition and early turnover. That, he said, can result in fewer officers responding to calls and much longer wait times for officers to respond to calls in the most rural areas.

He said potential changes to Proposition 47, a decade-old ballot measure aimed at reducing the number of people sent to prison for low-level drug and property offenses, could lead to more arrests and, as a result, the state would need more police officers.

“I think the staffing issue is something that's been needed for a long time, but obviously with Proposition 36 making significant changes to Proposition 47, there's going to have to be some staffing changes,” he said.

Rep. Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), a former chairman of the Budget Subcommittee on Public Safety, said police agencies should focus more on recruiting “more mature” officers who are better educated, rather than simply adding more officers.

“We need to hire more of those people, that's it,” he said. “What I don't agree with is putting people on the streets with guns who are not prepared for modern policing, which leads to more black and brown people being shot indiscriminately.”