Police report declines in reported crime; mental-health clinicians handle 80% of crisis calls
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Summary
Police Chief Greg Terry told councilors that reported crime declined in 2024 and that the department’s focused strategies — including a deterrent program for gun and gang violence and a dedicated retail‑theft detail — contributed to reductions. He said mental‑health clinicians working in dispatch handled about 80% of crisis calls in recent years,
Police Chief Greg Terry told the Bakersfield City Council on May 5 that reported crime declined in 2024 and the department attributes the improvement to data‑driven deployment, community partnerships and focused deterrent strategies aimed at gun and gang violence.
Terry said the department completed its first full year under NIBRS reporting and that some statistical corrections reduced previously reported counts, but he also credited proactive policing, detectives and community programs for declines in homicides, nonfatal shootings and organized retail theft.
The chief highlighted the department’s work on mental‑health response: three clinicians are co‑located with dispatch and provide triage seven days a week for 12–16 hours per day; over the most recent three‑year period those clinicians handled about 82% of crisis calls that otherwise could have required an officer response. “When that clinician is not available, then very often it resorts to a police response,” Terry said, explaining how the co‑response model reduces officer workload and focuses sworn staff on calls only they must handle.
Terry briefed council on staffing: the department has a roughly 93% fill rate, with 38 vacancies counted in addition to 20 recruits currently in the academy (the recruits are counted as vacancies until they graduate). He said the department has added many officers since the Public Safety and Vital Services initiative (PSVS) investments and has run 10 academies since PSVS began.
Regarding communications, Terry outlined progress on the regional radio upgrade. He said portable radios were deployed and mobile installations are underway; interim measures — including a temporary mobile receive site at Polo Park and tower tuning at existing receive sites — have reduced some dead spots but full coverage awaits completed tower sites and the new system cutover, which city technology staff estimated could occur for the Bakersfield cell in mid‑to‑late 2027.
Terry also said the department maintained a high homicide clearance rate and used targeted strategies for organized retail theft, citing a monthly retailer working group and a detective detail focused on serial offenders. He said traffic fatalities declined last year and that grant funding supports DUI patrols and other enforcement that helps traffic safety.
Chief Terry requested one CIP item to mitigate water intrusion at police headquarters entrances and described contractual and internal rate increases that drive the department’s proposed budget rise of just under 7% for the coming fiscal year — chiefly salaries and benefits, PERS and workers’ compensation, plus internal fleet and technology rates.
Council members asked for zonal response‑time breakdowns and for more detail on mental‑health coverage and the insurance impacts on businesses. Terry said he would provide zone-level response-time data and noted that commercial insurance premiums and perception metrics have affected reporting and business operations in some areas.
