AGENDA CAPTION:
Title
Receive a report on the San Marcos Police Department workload and staffing analysis, and provide direction to the City Manager.
Body
Meeting date: January 20, 2026
Department: City Manager’s Office and Police
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Background Information:
Initially, the City Council directed the City Manager’s Office to commission a staffing study before authorizing any additional public safety positions. Following City Council approval of a proposal on May 20, 2025, the San Marcos Police Department engaged Matrix Consulting Group to conduct a comprehensive assessment of police services and staffing. The study was designed to evaluate the Department’s ability to meet current service demands, review staffing levels and deployment practices, assess operational and administrative support functions, and establish a data-driven framework to guide future resource and staffing decisions.
The assessment focused on the delivery of the City's emergency services system, including proactive policing efforts, current staffing levels, resource management and allocation, alternative service delivery options, and responsiveness to community needs. The analysis considered how service demands, workloads, and organizational complexity have evolved and how effectively existing staffing and resources align with these changes.
Matrix Consulting Group employed a multi-method approach that included interviews with City leadership, police command staff, sworn personnel, civilian personnel, and community stakeholders. The project team collected and analyzed workload and service demand data, reviewed operational documents and reports, and examined budget, organizational, and management practices. Community engagement was a central component of this study, which included five structured input meetings.
Community input was gathered through three in-person meetings and two virtual sessions that focused on public safety priorities, service quality, and police responsiveness. Participants expressed concerns regarding traffic enforcement, limited police visibility-especially in the downtown area-and overall staffing levels. Feedback on community engagement, transparency, and neighborhood safety varied: some residents expressed dissatisfaction, while others felt that current services met their expectations. Additional themes included a demand for expanded mental health resources and consideration of non-police entities for certain code-enforcement responsibilities.
Operational feedback highlighted several internal challenges affecting the Department's effectiveness. For example, reliance on volunteers for certain administrative functions poses risks if participation declines. Additionally, increasing technological and regulatory demands, particularly regarding the review and redaction of body-worn camera footage, have added pressure on administrative staff. Concerns were also raised about staffing limitations that may lead to reduced patrol availability or require supervisors to assume patrol duties, which may not meet established best-practice benchmarks. Furthermore, additional pressures were noted in specialized functions such as victim services and training, where existing resources may be insufficient to meet departmental needs.
The assessment was conducted against the backdrop of rising expectations for modern policing, particularly in terms of transparency, accountability, and data-supported decision-making. It was noted that administrative and operational support functions have not kept pace with the growth in workload and organizational complexity.
The report presents a series of recommendations intended to address these findings and support long-term service effectiveness for the San Marcos Police Department.
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
* Indicates a new recommendation identified through this assessment.
|
Area / Section |
Recommendation |
|
Office of the Chief |
No recommendations. |
|
Operations |
* Increase the number of Sergeants assigned to patrol units by 1 FTE for a total of 7 FTE patrol sergeants. Deploy this additional Sergeant to lead an Enhanced Downtown Business Patrol Unit to proactively address safety and quality-of-life issues surrounding the university campus in San Marcos. *Maintain the current number of authorized Corporals and Officers assigned to patrol units. * Increase the staffing of the Mental Health Unit by 2 FTE Officers for a total of 1 FTE Corporal and 4 FTE Officers. * Increase the staffing of Police Services Specialists within patrol by 1 FTE for a total of 5 FTE Police Services Specialists. * Increase the staffing of the property crimes by two investigator for a total of eight assigned. * Assign some of the property crimes cases to the vehicle crimes investigator to reduce the property crimes caseload. * Add 1 digital forensics investigator, for a total of 3 assigned. * Increase the staffing of the special investigations by two investigators for a total of five assigned. * Add two analyst for a total of four assigned with one supervisor (Five total personnel) |
|
Administration |
* Increase Administration staffing by 1 professional staff accreditation coordinator position. * Increase authorized staffing in the Administrative Division by 1 full-time internal affairs investigator (sergeant) and by 1 full-time pre-employment background investigator. * Create a professional staff position for a fleet operations coordinator to enable the community services sergeant to concentrate on first-line supervisory functions, utilizing police training as the primary skill set, with a focus on law enforcement duties. * Establish a structured internal tracking system to monitor qualitative performance measures and workload completion times assigned to the Crime Prevention Unit. * Increase staffing in the Traffic Unit by two officers and one investigator. * Increase the Training Unit by two officers and one administrative assistant, for a total of one sergeant, three officers, and one administrative assistant. * Implement a structured post-in-service training field observation program in which supervisors utilize a standardized evaluation checklist to document whether officers consistently apply their learned skills during actual calls. * Increase the number of records specialists in the Records Unit by 2.5 FTE. * Increase the number of records supervisors in the Records Unit by 1, for 2 FTE. * Increase 911 Operations staffing by 11 telecommunication operators, bringing the total to 36. |
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