SAPD actively recruiting to expand patrol with $6.25M grant

With $6.25 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, the San Antonio Police Department is set to hire 50 new officers to the local police force. This is the latest in the police department’s goal to bring on more than 300 officers in the next few years to help continue to bridge the gap between local communities and law enforcement.

During a press conference Monday, November 6, representatives from U.S. Congress, San Antonio City Council, and SAPD came together to outline the massive influx of funds headed to the local police force. According to SAPD Chief William McManus, the federal dollars will bring on 50 new police officers which is intended to shift patrol officers’ time from responding to calls most of the time to spending more time navigating the community.

“These 50 officers – all the talk is that the 100 or so officers we’re going to bring on will go directly into patrol – these 50 will be included in that 100, but that 100 that goes into patrol, that’s about advancing community policing,” McManus said. “The way that happens is we are trying to reverse the 60:40 ratio where we have officers who spend 60% of their time on call and 40% of their time doing community policing work. We’re going to reverse that and have it 60% of their time doing community policing work and their discretionary time and 40% of their time on calls.”

McManus is referring to the San Antonio City Council’s approval of increased budgeting toward SAPD this budget cycle which funded the onboarding of 100 new officers. According to the police chief, these 50 officers were coming online with or without federal funding, but the additional dollars certainly don’t hurt.

This is just the latest in a series of efforts made by local law enforcement to continue building community relationships, ensuring officers are part of the communities they serve.

“We always get questions like, ‘Well how are you going to build trust? How are you going to do this? How are you going to work your way into the communities and bridge that gap? What we don’t talk about is the gap we have bridged,” McManus said. “The majority of this community is strongly in support of this police department. I’m out on the street all the time – East, West, North, and South – and I can tell you without being biased about it that we have a great relationship with this police department.”

While he admitted there will never be 100% support for a police department, he said his office has done major work already bridging any gaps between the community and its law enforcement. However, he said there’s no finish line in trying to bolster that relationship. District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda said the move in prioritizing officers’ time spent community policing over time spent responding to calls will continue to help foster the trust she says so many San Antonio residents already have for the local police department.

“We are a community that is forward leaning. We are a community that comes together and finds a way for solutions not just rhetoric. It’s not just somebody else’s problem,” U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said during the press conference Monday, acknowledging all the federal, state, and local leaders who came together to make the grant a reality.