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Oxnard police chief: staffing gaps and overdose surge are straining response goals
Summary
Police Chief Jason Benitez told the Oxnard City Council the department has maintained sub‑5‑minute response times for highest‑priority calls but faces persistent vacancies, rising overdose incidents and costly encampment abatements as it seeks to restore neighborhood policing.
Police Chief Jason Benitez presented the Oxnard City Council with an overview of department priorities, staffing challenges and public‑safety trends, saying the department is balancing rapid emergency response with mounting demands from overdoses, homelessness and traffic collisions.
Benitez said the department’s goal remains to "generally arrive to the highest priority emergencies in 5 minutes or less," and that the agency has largely maintained that standard despite staffing shortfalls in recent years. He told council the department’s authorized complement is 242 officers, down from a recent high of 254 between 2011 and 2015.
Benitez described a workload of roughly 118,000 calls for service a year and said calls involving people…
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