Carlsbad police chief outlines staffing shortfalls; council asks for near-term action on six positions

Police Chief Christy Calderwood and Assistant Chief Reid Shipley presented a department-wide staffing and workload review and asked the council to consider multi-year staffing additions to address rising workload, training demands and retention challenges.

Chief Calderwood said the department has been operating with “professional, well trained staff” but faces retention and workload pressures that have reduced deployable staffing. She noted Carlsbad had 1.14 sworn officers per 1,000 residents in FY 2023–24 — near the lowest in the region — and that the department lost 63 officers over five years to attrition and other causes.

Why it matters

City staff said population, daytime workers and visitors increase the number of people served daily to roughly 197,000, and that planned housing growth and a larger hospitality economy tend to produce more calls for service. The department reported more than 100,000 calls for service over five years and a 5.3% increase in calls from 2022 to 2024.

Key findings and proposals

- Deployable staffing: Over the past three years the department averaged roughly 78% deployable staffing (i.e., a portion of allocated sworn positions not available for deployment due to vacancies, injuries, training or other reasons). In 2024 deployable staffing improved to about 81% but still left roughly 25 allocated positions unavailable on average. - Workload drivers: Chief Calderwood and Assistant Chief Shipley identified legislative changes (such as Racial and Identity Profiling Act data collection requirements), technology (body-worn camera and digital-evidence processing burdens), partner impacts (longer transports when detention or crisis facilities are unavailable) and increased training and documentation as causes of longer call times and follow-up workload. - Evidence and investigations: The department reported a heavy caseload of digital-evidence and child-exploitation cases. The child-exploitation/ICAC caseload stood at about 74 ICAC cases assigned to a single detective; staff cited an industry guideline of about 10–15 manageable cases per month and recommended a dedicated ICAC detective. Staff also recommended hiring a digital-forensics specialist because county resources are no longer processing some types of cell-phone evidence and wait times can be lengthy. - Staffing requests: A four- to five-year staffing plan identified approximately 19 positions (sworn and civilian) the department may request. Chief Calderwood said that if all 19 were funded over five years the city’s sworn-per-1,000 ratio would increase to about 1.19 — still below the regional average — and the general fund allocation to police would rise from 25% to about 27%.

Council action and next steps

Mayor Blackburn moved, and the council unanimously approved, a request that the city manager return as soon as possible with an action to support the six positions the chief prioritized for the FY 2025–26 budget cycle and to include associated costs. Council members stressed the need for prompt budget-level information so hiring can begin; staff reiterated that new hires typically require many months of academy and field training before working independently.

Speakers