Almaden Resident
News
Police ready to open first substation
By Eli Segall
Whether on patrol in Almaden Valley or Alviso, every San Jose police officer heads downtown to the city's lone police station to file reports, book evidence or attend briefings. Time that could be spent in the field is instead spent shuttling back and forth between headquarters and service areas, police officials say.
To cut travel time and, in turn, boost officer efficiency, the police department plans to build a substation near Almaden that will serve the department's Southern Division.
The South San Jose Police Substation, slated for the old Hitachi site near the intersection of highways 85 and 101, will house 400 of the city's 1,360 sworn officers, said deputy chief Ken Ferguson. Most of the officers assigned to the new substation will serve the Southern Division, which includes Almaden Valley and parts of the Branham neighborhood.
"The idea is to stay in the field," said Southern Division Capt. Dave Cavallaro. "This easily gives them a half-hour or more that they'd otherwise use to travel."
The 107,000-square-foot facility will go to bid in August, said David Sykes, deputy director of the San Jose Public Works Department. Construction is scheduled to begin early next year and should be completed by July 2009, he said. Measure O, a $159 million bond San Jose voters approved in 2002 for public safety projects, will fund the $71 million station, he added.
The substation, identified as necessary in 2002 in an outside consultant's study of SJPD operations, is a long overdue effort to decentralize the department, said Ferguson, a 30-year police veteran and Almaden Valley native.
Police headquarters at Mission and San Pedro streets is at capacity with staff and stored evidence and equipment, he said.
"We're bursting at the seams," said Ferguson, who added that no other substations are currently planned. "We simply don't have the capacity to grow there."
San Jose, with nearly 1 million residents sprawled across 178 square miles, is the last major city in the United States to operate with one police station, according to Ferguson. Community policing centers at Westfield Oakridge Shopping Town and other locations in the city handle resident complaints and community outreach; they are not fully functional police precincts, he added.
"[The substation] is our first," Sykes said.
Despite the excitement, the station presents a range of logistical and personnel obstacles, Cavallaro said. Such issues include how many detectives, and from which units, will be stationed in S. San Jose; the amount of non-sworn, civilian staff working there; and ensuring sound communication between headquarters and the substation.
"It just kind of makes sense to have your staff all over the city--not that it doesn't come with problems," Cavallaro said.
Still, he and other officials eagerly await the new facility, which will have a records division, a fleet maintenance unit and public art projects adorning the exterior.
"We've been talking about this for 20 years," Ferguson said.
