Police Chief Jason Benitez presented a prerecorded briefing to the Oxnard City Council on Dec. 2, 2025, saying chronic vacancies and a sharp rise in overdose responses have reshaped the department’s priorities and resource needs. He recommended the council "receive and file" the update from the police and fire chiefs.

Benitez said the department currently has 242 authorized sworn officer positions, down from a historical high of 254 between 2011 and 2015, and a staffing ratio of roughly 1.22 officers per 1,000 residents. He told the council the police general fund makes up about 36% of the city’s General Fund and that those budget shares vary across comparable West Coast cities.

The chief described how sustained high call volumes—peaking above 132,000 calls in 2020 and averaging about 118,000 annually over the past three years—strain patrol and dispatch resources. To maintain response capability, the department implemented a "patrol flex" plan that temporarily reassigns specialty-unit officers to patrol; Benitez said this has helped staffing on patrol but reduced time for proactive neighborhood policing, traffic enforcement and detective work and that the department expects to return officers to specialty duties in 2026 after stronger 2025 recruiting.

Benitez also highlighted emergency response standards and technology needs. He said the department seeks to respond to 'emergency‑plus' (life‑threatening) calls in under five minutes; those incidents authorize a Code 3 (lights and siren) response and the use of any on‑duty personnel. He emphasized technology upgrades—moving to a regional radio system to eliminate dead spots, expanding drone and mobile command-post capability, upgrading TASERs and maintaining funding for body‑worn cameras (Oxnard currently uses Axon 4)—as central to improving officer safety and operational effectiveness.

Public safety trends discussed included crime reporting changes after adoption of the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which Benitez said the department converted for 2023–24 comparisons with the older Uniform Crime Reporting method. He reported homicides declined from 13 in 2021 to five in 2024 and traffic fatalities fell from 14 to eight in the same period. At the same time, Oxnard remains high among comparable California cities for injury collisions; Benitez reported 1,055 injury collisions in 2024 and cited California Office of Traffic Safety rankings that placed Oxnard third among 61 comparable cities for injury collisions and DUI-related collision metrics.

Benitez said the city is contending with a worsening overdose crisis. He reported 61 fatal overdoses last year—about 4.3 times the combined total of homicides and traffic fatalities—and described fentanyl and methamphetamine as the predominant drugs. He noted the department’s participation in VC FOCUS (the Ventura County Fentanyl and Overdose Crimes Units) and that one Oxnard case produced the county's first murder charge related to providing fentanyl. Benitez also said naloxone availability has likely reduced fatal overdoses in some incidents and that first responders routinely administer the antidote.

Homelessness and public assembly also drive workloads, Benitez said. He reported Oxnard’s 2025 point‑in‑time count as 634, emphasized that being unhoused "is not a crime," and described a six‑officer Homeless Liaison Officer team that handled over 6,500 events in 2024 to connect people with services and address encampments in partnership with city departments and providers. He added that 2025 saw more demonstrations and school walkouts, most peaceful but occasionally requiring large deployments that diverted officers from neighborhood and traffic priorities.

Benitez pointed to internal capacity issues beyond sworn staffing: the Emergency Communications Center handled more than 342,000 calls in 2024, has 29 currently budgeted positions and a 13.7% vacancy rate, while a workload assessment recommended a complement of 39 (31 dispatchers, 7 supervisors and 1 manager). He also described operational vacancies—officers on leave, training, disability or other non‑service statuses—that, when added to unfilled posts, can create dozens of positions effectively unavailable.

Facility, fleet and process problems were listed among future needs. Benitez described the 1977 police headquarters’ aging plumbing and electrical systems, limited parking and maintenance issues; a vehicle fleet strained by heavy use, supply‑chain delays and long outfitting times; and report‑writing and records systems that are out of date. He said booking at the county jail can take approximately three hours for noncomplicated arrests, adding to patrol time demands.

To address long‑term capacity, Benitez urged more investment in employee wellness and training, expansion of civilian professional staff (dispatchers, community service officers, traffic service assistants) to free sworn officers for policing duties, and upgrades to IT infrastructure—including migration to a Microsoft‑based platform, public‑facing cameras, automated license‑plate readers and expanded drone capability—toward a real‑time information center.

The chief also addressed federal immigration enforcement. He cited California Senate Bill 54 and stressed that under state law local agencies generally may not use resources for immigration enforcement and cannot obstruct federal agents. "We simply cannot get around this," he said, describing how encounters involving federal immigration agents have complicated police‑community relations and increased response demands.

Benitez closed by thanking the council and viewers and restating the recommendation that the council receive and file the police and fire chiefs’ informational update. The presentation did not record a council vote during the briefing itself.