City manager wants to hire more police officers
More officers could soon be patrolling the streets. City Manager Sam Azad plans to talk with Pueblo City Council about hiring seven officers over the next two years. Azad cited an uptick in crime as the reason for beefing up staffing.
“I think it’s, overall, the rate of crime that’s becoming very concerning, that we need to address those issues as fast as we possibly could,” Azad said.
Azad said he’s unclear how many officers would be added in 2016 and 2017, respectively, but said it would culminate in a total of seven. He’s waiting on direction from city council before making that decision. The city currently has 14 officer positions frozen.
Sgt. Eric Gonzales said the need for additional officers has become more apparent in recent months.
“There’s a lot of work to be done in this city. Crime’s rising, burglaries are going up, we got some gang issues going on,” Gonzales said.
Burglaries are up by 18 percent since 2010. There were 1,959 burglaries reported last year. There has also been a 40 percent spike in motor vehicle thefts since 2010.
“It’s hard to combat all those things and keep people safe when you’re short officers,” Gonzales said.
Additionally, so far this year there have been seven homicides in Pueblo — five of them remain unsolved. The most recent one is the death of Isaiah Vialpando, 20, who was shot and killed last Wednesday while driving through downtown Pueblo.
“I knew Isaiah [Vialpando] so it hits closer to home for us than most. He played Mariachi with my daughter,” said Puebloan Tanya Quintana. “My heart bleeds for his mom and dad and his grandma.”
Quintana told KRDO NewsChannel 13 she wants the city to hire more officers.
“Being born and raised here in Pueblo, I think we’re seeing a lot more young deaths and unsolved crimes, and it’s just disheartening,” she said.
But others said hiring more officers won’t address the crime rate.
“Part of the problem is there’s so much drugs and alcohol, because the youth in our city don’t have enough to do,” said Pueblo resident Jay Martinez.
Azad said hiring seven more officers would cost the city upwards of $700,000 a year. While the starting salary for a police officer is $42,110, Azad estimates hiring one officer would cost about $110,000 a year. He says the estimate is based on step increases officers accumulate yearly, in addition to benefits and police equipment.
Pueblo City Council has until November to finalize the budget and decide whether to approve funding for those officers.
