At its April 9 city council meeting, San Ramon Chief Denton Carlson reported the out its 2023 Annual Report to the council.
The San Ramon Police Department is authorized for 74 officers currently have a department with 69 police officers. They are also authorized for 20 in administrative staff with 15 positions filled.
Carlson explained to the council that they are no exception to hiring in law enforcement calling it still a struggle.
“We are still getting quality candidates, but it is a challenge like never before,” stated Carlson who explained it similar to sports right now. “It’s a free agent market now. You have to be able to provide an environment that is conducive where they enjoy where they are at because I have never seen an environment where law enforcement officers are changing departments like we are seeing now.”
He shared he believed some of police movement has to do with the changes to the retirement system and quality of life issues facing law enforcement and the cities they work in.
“We are walking the tight rope when it comes to staffing and we don’t have a lot of wiggle room,” explained Carlson explaining if they had 3-4 officers’ lateral to another agency they would be in a “world of hurt”.
San Ramon Police Department Total Calls For Service
- 2023 – 72,808 (526 arrests)
- 2022 – 63,525
- 2021 – 67,584
- 2020 – 70,521
- 2019 – 80,602
Response Times (Priority 1)
- 2023 – 4:24 minutes
- 2022 – 4:11 minutes
- 2021 – 4:21 minutes
- 2020 – 4:10 minutes
- 2019 – 4:27 minutes
Carlson explained they have to get to calls during an emergency which means they have pulled investigators and placed them in patrol while also reducing school resources officers from 4 to 2. The community will not see the reduction in service, but they see it internally in other departments that public does not see which he called a “challenge”.
Crime Data
They have now replaced the UCR (Uniform Crime Reporting) and now using NIBRS (National Incident Based Reporting System) – much more comprehensive reporting. Like other agencies, its impacted crime data numbers. For example, if multiple crimes occur in an incident, all crimes are reported instead of the single incident.
| Group A Crimes | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Murder/Manslaughter | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Rape/Sexual Assault | 4 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 20 |
| Robbery | 21 | 22 | 18 | 18 | 26 |
| Aggravated Assault | 33 | 21 | 27 | 36 | 88 |
| Burglary | 202 | 103 | 113 | 126 | 88 |
| Larceny/Theft | 856 | 636 | 686 | 622 | 633 |
| Vehicle Theft | 51 | 56 | 84 | 63 | 96 |
| Arson | 3 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
“You will see a huge increase in aggravated assault from 36 to 88. The difference in that is now an attempted or threat of an aggravated assault is now counted in NIBRS which is why you see that significant increase. It’s not just the act having occurred, it’s the threat of within an activity,” explained Carlson.
Carlson also shared catalytic converter theft data where in 2022 they had 148 thefts, however, in 2023 they had just 23 thefts—showing how legislation can make a difference (it increased fines and consequences on metal recycling businesses) for accepting stolen goods. He says it took away the ability to sell these or put them once stolen.
Crimes per 1,000 residents:
- 2023 – 11.54
- 2022 – 12.62
- 2021 – 11.15
- 2020 – 10.14
- 2019 – 13.84
- 2018 – 10.56
- 2017 – 13.61
- 2016 – 11.03
- 2015 – 11.85
- 2014 – 10.18
Note – 2014-201 the data was using UCR vs. NIBRS
Organized Retail Theft (since Nov 2023)
- 72 cases investigated ($93,782 in losses)
- 41 arrests with $27,854 in recoveries
New Cameras & Drones
- 10 new license plate reader cameras are coming to San Ramon (+40 cameras current) and anticipates over 100 cameras within the city in the future.
Overall, they have 44 situational cameras with 46 ALPR Cameras for 100 total cameras.
2023:
- 330 criminal investigations
- 72 stolen vehicles recovered
- Instrumental in solving Heller Jewelers robbery case
“There is no way we would have solved the Heller Jewelers robbery case without the cameras,” stated Carlson. “It’s an incredibly vital component to identifying the individuals.”
Since August 2020
- 1000+ criminal investigations
- 220 stolen vehicles recovered
- Evidentiary value linked to 200+ arrests.
Behavior Health Response
Since the response program with the partnership with 988/Contra Costa Crisis and the firefighter response, they have had 26 calls handled since October 2023 (25.5%) with 19 included firefighter response. Chief says the 2024 involuntary holds were down roughly 34% in comparison to 2023.
“One of the goals of this was to find alternate destinations and focus on the care of the individual in the crisis,” stated Carlson. He called it very encouraging to turn these calls into medical calls versus enforcement calls to ensure people got the help they need.
Calls for Service Analysis
Between 2018-2022 showed 350,000+ events and used data to update its “Beats” to ensure a more even workload for all 6-beats. It’s a lot more calls for services in the business areas – theft and other calls. Beat 1 & 3 was always the busiest beats, but now all six beats are within 1.6% variance of one another.
Staffing Study – breakdown of calls per day (2022 data)
- Sunday – 11.86%
- Monday – 14.44%
- Tuesday – 15.09%
- Wednesday – 15.28%
- Thursday – 14.68%
- Friday – 15.43%
- Saturday – 13.21%
“What we did find is our police staffing is adequate based on the 2022 data,” explained Carlson. “Our patrol staffing for 2022 was adequate… we are really close to the 50-50 market, the downside is that our calls for service volume went up in 2023. It went up to the tune of 11%.”
Carlson also questioned they are waiting on 2023 data but they are getting to the tipping point if they have enough in patrol.
Traffic-Related Data (2020 was removed from data per Chief)
“The average income from a citation is about $40,” stated Carlson which even if they wrote tickets all day, they would not generate enough revenue to hire an officer.
Traffic Collisions
- 2023 – 509
- 2020 – 510
- 2021 – 387
- 2019 – 439
DUI Crashes
- 2023 – 32
- 2022 – 31
- 2021 – 16
- 2019 – 36
DUI Arrests
- 2023 – 71
- 2022 – 66
- 2021 – 51
- 2019 – 97
Traffic Stops
- 2023 – 8,054
- 2022 – 7,283
- 2021 – 6,365
- 2019 – 11,238
Citations Issued
- 2023 – 3,3288
- 2022 – 4,425
- 2021 – 3,013
- 2019 – 6,564
To watch the presentation, click here.
The full 2023 annual report will be posted to their website in the coming weeks.
