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Police, fire present technology and facility needs; council discusses staffing and station upgrades
Summary
Police sought continued funding for body‑worn cameras, evidence interview upgrades and trial deployment of draft‑assisted reporting; fire proposed SCBA, vehicle and station project funding and additional leadership for Santa Teresa station planning.
Police and fire department leaders presented operational highlights and capital requests tied to public‑safety service and training during the Gilroy budget workshop on May 12.
Police Chief Pedro Smoza said the department implemented Axon body‑worn cameras and is piloting Axon Draft One (an AI‑assisted reporting tool) to reduce report writing and increase officer time in the field. The department requested upgrades to interview‑room recording and cloud storage and to expand Axon integrations; Chief Smoza said the interview‑room vendor is out of business and the upgrade is necessary to maintain chain of custody and prosecution capability.
Chief Smoza also described the department’s new community engagement coordinator and the department’s expanded quality‑of‑life program; he said the Axon systems support transparency and evidence‑based prosecution. He requested funding for full deployment and related training.
Fire Chief Rob Filippe outlined proposed investments in self‑contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) with Bluetooth capability, SCBA compressors, hydraulic rescue tools, battery‑powered patient gurneys and chest‑compression devices. Filippe said those items improve firefighter safety, speed extrication and reduce on‑scene physical strain. He also asked for a fourth division chief to oversee Santa Teresa fire station design and construction; the budget includes a division chief position paid from the construction fund to provide daily oversight during design and build phases.
The council discussed station remodels at Chestnut and Los Animas and noted those buildings date to the 1970s and may require substantial long‑term work. Chief Filippe said seismic retrofit assessments will be required and that in some cases retrofitting older stations can be costlier than replacement. He asked for continued work on station design and for equipment replacements (bunker gear, radios and other life‑safety equipment) across the two‑year budget.
Why it matters: The police and fire requests are largely capital and equipment‑focused with targeted personnel changes aimed at operational oversight. Council members asked about staffing models, beat reconfiguration and the need for further needs assessments before adding large ongoing personnel commitments.
