Sacramento County is facing serious budget problems for the new fiscal year that starts in July. Various factors have brought the situation to a head: policy shifts at the federal and state level, the current weak economy, inadequate "rainy day" reserves and so on. This isn't really news, as these things tend to be cyclical. History has shown that down years are typically followed by up years. Things can get pretty rough in the down years, though.

Fiscal year 2026-2027 looks to be one of those rough periods, with an apparent $100M deficit looming. The County says it needs to chop millions from the upcoming budget. So how are the Supervisors planning on making the cuts? Answer - in the usual way, chopping funds - $35M - from the Sheriff's Department. At least that's what Sheriff Cooper says. A few days ago he posted on Social Media that the County's Problem Oriented Policing (POP) program and Homeless Operations Team (HOT) would be eliminated for the new fiscal year, He adding that there would be an 18% reduction in deputies and dectectives (child abuse, elderly abuse, homocide and identity theft detectives) from the current year - a 48% reduction since 2005.

Keep in mind that the Sheriff's Department already "has the lowest number of deputies assigned to answer 911 calls for services" (Cooper's words). We already have far fewer beat cops on patrol in the unincorporated area than the cities in the county do. And much of our law enforcement staff doesn't work nights and weekends. On top of that, our traffic law enforcement is handled by the California Highway Patrol, an overextended state agency that operates within a state budget that is currently hemhorraging billions of dollars (the Legislative Analyst's Office estimates a $3B-$18B deficit for the 2026-2027 fiscal year).

Still, our community depends on the Sheriff's people to keep us safe. Sometimes we have to push hard for that, but usually the Deputies have been very helpful once they hear us. An example is the use of the Country Club Plaza vicinity (Watt from Butano to Marconi) for homeless encampments, which has involved drug use, drug dealing and trespassing. The Sheriff's Office has begun to get that situation under control. Losing the HOT and POP officers will surely reverse the gains.

Long story short, our public safety situation - already on thin ice - is staring at very grim circumstances come July.