SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For the first time, Sacramento Police Department is going on the record about a major staffing shortage that's leading them to automate a portion of the service they provide in the capital city.
Instead of officers actually showing up when you call 911, depending on the crime, you might just get a text message instead.
Day in and day out, the calls keep coming, and since the pandemic at least one thing is certain, the staffing challenge has been growing in Sacramento.
"It's no secret that not only law enforcement but other professions have had staffing challenges coming out of COVID," said Sgt. Zach Eaton, spokesperson for Sacramento Police Department.
The Sacramento Police Department has 755 allotted positions and 688 of those positions are currently occupied, leaving 67 vacant positions.
However, it's not just police. There's a dispatcher shortage as well. Despite having 95 allotted, only 68 of those positions are occupied with 27 vacant positions.
"Using SPIDR Tech is another way for us to kind of alleviate some of those staffing challenges and particularly in the communications division," said Eaton.
According to their website, SPIDR Tech is an automated customer service platform for public safety. Instead of following up with a dispatcher or sometimes even an actual officer, SPIDR Tech would send you a text message instead.
"Say there's a disturbance in a neighborhood that doesn't require an immediate police response, because we do have a prioritization of calls that we respond to. But for some of those lower level calls that we want to get to, we use our system to send a text message to the community member that's calling in and let them know how long it's going to take us to get there."
Jamila Land is co-founder of the Anti-Violence Safety and Accountability Project.
"I think that it is a complicated idea to say the least," said Land. "It depends on the type of crimes that people are calling and reporting."
Police said violent crimes in progress get priority, and officers will be dispatched to the incident.
Other crimes such as assault cases that aren’t actively underway, disturbance, battery, trespassing, collision, theft and burglary calls might receive a follow-up text after your initial 911 call.
A sample text message reads: "Thank you for your call to the Sacramento Police Department. This incident has been reviewed by a supervisor and will not receive a response from an officer at this time. We appreciate your help in keeping our community safe."
You might receive this text for a burglary: "Please compile a list of items you believe were stolen prior to the arrival of the officer; as long as you can do so without disturbing areas of potential evidence such as fingerprints, shoeprints or shoe tracks, any areas of forced entry, or similar.
We strive to provide our community members with excellent service. We are unable to provide you with an estimated time of an officer's response but will do our best to be timely."
"That's problematic because you are now asking the everyday citizens to be a crime scene investigator, which they are not adequately trained to be able to do," said Land.
"I also think that we should consider police accountability. There's a lot of potential for harm. Number one, we are removing the human element," she added.
That is why police stress that once officers do respond, the text messages provide a link to offer feedback on your experience.
"We want to hear the positive. We want to hear the negative. We're not going to discount any of it. We're taking all of it in," said Eaton.
In a growing city with growing staffing challenges, it's yet another way technology is replacing human interaction. But police insist this SPIDR Tech could be a game changer.
"Sometimes people aren't happy with the services that we provide. We take those very seriously, and it's another avenue to be able to improve the performance of our officers," said Eaton.
As for the price tag for the service, police said SPIDR Tech service costs about $150,000 a year.
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