San Jose police program in the spotlight after officer death

Police officers across Silicon Valley are mourning San Jose’s first community service officer killed in the line of duty — a gesture to how integral these officers have become in a city that struggles to fill its police ranks.

Long Pham, a community service officer with the San Jose Police Department since 2022, was killed Aug. 3 after being struck by an alleged drunk driver while directing traffic on Monterey Road. His shocking death highlights the role of community service officers — or CSOs — who are meant to on take some of the workload from the city’s sworn police force.

But they differ from police officers in several ways. They can’t make arrests or enforce laws, but they do help with investigations. Anyone can apply for the role, even if they don’t have law enforcement experience or training. They receive training from the city on how to conduct investigations, handle forensics, learn police codes and self-defense.

SJPD launched the CSO program a decade ago to alleviate pressure on the police force by allowing CSOs to handle lower-priority duties such as traffic and crowd control, help with investigations related to burglaries or vandalism and missing persons cases. San Jose has budgeted hiring at least 67 CSOs to patrol streets, in addition to the at least 980 sworn police officers already working.

This allows police officers to respond to calls involving more serious crimes such as homicides, kidnappings, assaults and more.

A spokesperson for SJPD said the department replicated the community service officer program after seeing its success in other U.S. cities.

“CSOs have been instrumental in supplementing staffing gaps by handling those lower priority calls,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight.

CSOs are also trained to use forensic methods such as dusting for fingerprints in investigations.

San Jose has long struggled with what many say is the most thinly-staffed police department. The city has 1 officer for every 1,000 residents, much less than a city like San Francisco which has 3 officers per 1,000 residents, according to 2019 FBI data. San Francisco’s population is hovering around 800,000 compared to San Jose’s nearly 1 million.

Politicians have blamed San Jose’s controversial Measure B, crafted by former Mayor Chuck Reed in 2012, for driving away droves of officers. The measure, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters, cut public employee pensions.

San Jose Downtown Association CEO Alex Stettinski said four CSOs patrol the downtown core. With a loss of many longtime businesses and tech employees working from home, some of downtown’s abandoned streets have become a magnet for blight, vandalism and crime.

The downtown CSOs recently began partnering with the association’s Groundwerx crew to patrol the area and report any suspicious activity and behavior.

Stettinski hopes people don’t stop supporting the program — or volunteering to serve as CSOs — because of Pham’s death.

“The CSO program is valuable and really needed. These officers do a great job providing directions, answering questions and also producing police reports,” Stettinski told San José Spotlight. “With the work they do on investigating lower-level crimes, the bigger crimes are more immediately addressed by police officers.”

As SJPD continues to face one of the lowest staffing numbers for any major city, department representatives say community service officers help fill in the gaps. The city also is also grappling with long response times to calls for service and low recruitment rates for its police academy.

CSOs get paid about $77,000 to $100,000 compared to the average salary of a sworn police officer in San Jose, which can be closer to $200,000.

Last month, 27 police recruits and three CSOs graduated from San Jose’s police academy and training programs.

Downtown resident Elizabeth Chien-Hale wants to see more CSOs across the city and especially in downtown. She said she hardly sees them around these days — especially after the pandemic.

“I’m not sure they walk around quite as much as they did before,” she told San José Spotlight.

Stettinski agreed and said the area needs at least two more CSOs.

“Having an additional person at every shift would be hugely helpful,” he added. “Everybody we have here in downtown who provides eyes and ears are invaluable.”

Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X, formerly known as Twitter.