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Santa Barbara Police report Q3 gains in response times, e‑bike enforcement and hiring
Summary
At the Fire & Police Commission meeting Oct. 23, the Santa Barbara Police Department reported improved priority call response times, new enforcement and education around e‑bikes, higher DUI enforcement, fuller parking enforcement staffing and continued hiring to reduce vacancies.
Chief Gordon, of the Santa Barbara Police Department, told the Fire and Police Commission on Oct. 23 that the department’s quarter‑three mission strategies (July–September 2025) showed progress across response times, enforcement and community engagement.
The department reported that it had begun issuing administrative citations for e‑bike safety and recorded 172 citations in the quarter. “We have started issuing the administrative citations for e bikes. So ... in that third quarter, we issued 172 administrative citations for e bike safety reasons,” Chief Gordon said. The department also delivered three e‑bike safety school presentations during the quarter and said it received a new Office of Traffic Safety grant and a partnership grant with SB Move to expand education and enforcement.
The presentation listed enforcement and operational shifts that department leaders said are intended to reduce harm. Chief Gordon said the department assigned an officer with primary duty for DUI enforcement and that the weekend swing shift team is averaging one to two DUI arrests most nights. The report noted DUIs were up 51 percent year to date compared with last year and that an identified DUI‑related collision occurred near the high school over the weekend.
Year‑to‑date comparisons through Q3 showed crimes against persons and property down, while crimes against society were up about 3 percent — a change the report said amounted to fewer than 40 additional incidents over three quarters and was largely tied to narcotics offenses.
The department reported other operational measures and staffing updates: more than 9,000 calls for service and over 6,000 proactive engagement stops recorded year to date; parking enforcement is now fully staffed, producing an increase in parking citations; and volunteer policing (VIP) logged 768 hours in the quarter. Response times improved for high‑priority calls: Priority 1 (red light and siren) calls averaged 5.5 minutes against a 7‑minute goal, and Priority 2 calls averaged 11.6 minutes against a 14.5‑minute goal. Priority 3 and 4 times remained above goals but were close to targets.
On staffing, Chief Gordon said the department currently had 10 police officer positions open and an overall vacancy rate of 10 percent, compared with more than 25 percent three years earlier. She said four recruits recently graduated from the academy, nine were in the academy at the time of the meeting and another hiring class is scheduled to start in January. The chief noted three positions in the budget were not funded and three budgeted slots were used to pay for six police technician positions; the department said it sometimes brings candidates in as parking enforcement officers or police techs to provide experience before academy entry.
Commissioners thanked staff for increased community engagement and the e‑bike education work. Commissioner LaPaz said parents and teachers in her district had noticed safer behavior among schoolchildren where those outreach efforts have taken place.
The department also gave a brief construction update on the new police station: work is underway and remains on schedule, with occupancy anticipated in September 2027. Construction details included a 142‑foot crane on site and a planned police‑side foundation pour in mid‑November.
The commission did not take formal action on any policy changes during the report; the presentation was informational.
