At a time when police and fire agencies are expected to prepare for a terrorist attack, the number of officers and firefighters has been slowly shrinking. And federal homeland security grants can't be used to increase their ranks.
First responders say being ready is not just a matter of having the right equipment and training, but also of having enough front-line people should disaster strike.
Yet in Santa Clara County, the number of police and firefighters has either shrunk or remained flat, thinned by a state budget crisis that has sapped revenue on the local level.
The county sheriff's department, for example, has lost 87 full-time positions since the department reached its peak in 2003 -- a 10 percent reduction. The total force now stands at 810, including sworn deputies and civilian employees.
''I have to live day-to-day with these cuts in positions,'' said Capt. Edward J. Perry of the sheriff's special operations and homeland security unit.
Perry argues that police and fire agencies are being asked to do more with less -- whether it's buying and tracking the equipment they've bought or digesting intelligence gathered by federal, state and local agencies regarding possible terrorist threats.
Perry's office, for example, gets continuous intelligence reports from seven or more government sources every day. ''It would take one individual a substantial portion of the day just going through all this stuff,'' he said, ''but I don't have anybody to do it sufficiently.''
San Jose police and fire departments have also faced cuts in recent years. Police are to lose 34 authorized positions under the new city budget, dropping the force to 1,792 positions. That's 5 percent less than in 2002 and well below pre-Sept. 11 numbers, said Tom Manheim, spokesman for the city manager's office.
The fire department, with 825 authorized positions, has also been cut so it has slightly fewer jobs than it did before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Other jurisdictions in the county have been able to ward off cuts or hold them to a minimum. But they too have to meet additional burdens imposed by the homeland security initiative.
Santa Clara Police Chief Stephen D. Lodge has 136 officers, down from the 148 positions he's authorized to fill. Like many law enforcement agencies in recent years, he's had trouble recruiting qualified people to close that gap. Still, he's grateful that the number of positions he can fill has stayed the same despite the city's budget problems, although there have been some cuts in civilian personnel.
But from his office window, Lodge looks out at an Amtrak and Caltrain terminal. In an interview before the London transit bombings this summer, he said: ''I have no more officers to protect that train station than I did before 9/11/2001.
''When disaster strikes, the action of first responders can mitigate the cost, and if there aren't enough,'' he said, ''the cost of the disaster is going to be higher.''
Distributed by the Associated Press
