Vallejo police report staffing gains, improved response times and new task force to tackle abandoned vehicles

Vallejo’s police chief told the City Council the department has rebuilt recruitment programs and is seeing measurable improvements in response times while the city continues to grapple with staffing and quality‑of‑life problems.

“Currently, we have a total sworn staffing of 79 … sworn working full duty brings us to 77,” Chief Jason Tovaleo said as he walked council through the March 2026 operations report. Tovaleo said patrol staffing, field‑training placements and academy graduates are part of a pipeline he and staff are trying to stabilize.

Tovaleo said the department is pursuing expanded recruitment and a revived Explorer and Cadet program, and working with external partners to bring roughly $200,000 to that pipeline effort. He said the department backgrounded roughly 96–97 recruits in recent years but that only about 20% of backgrounds progress to hire.

On crime trends, the chief said some violent crime categories — aggravated and simple assaults — are inching upward and linked that partly to increased domestic‑violence cases, while property crimes such as auto burglary and theft are down significantly and shootings are down about 35% year‑over‑year.

Those operational shifts are reflected in response times the chief presented: priority‑one response averages have improved by roughly 31% compared with the prior year; priority‑two and priority‑three response times also showed multi‑decade improvements according to the charts presented to council.

The department also described a multi‑departmental response to abandoned vehicles: Vallejo CARES (Community Action, Response, Engagement and Services), a proposed task force involving police, code enforcement, public works and other units, plus a plan to revise rotational tow contracts to expand vendor participation. “We are looking to expand a task force-type team … we’re going to rotate tow rotations to two,” Tovaleo said, explaining the goal is to increase tow capacity and shorten the current processing delay on dismantling derelict RVs.

Solano County Sheriff Brad Duwahl, who joined the presentation, said the sheriff’s office is partnering on the same priorities and noted a similar priority‑one response time (a little over nine minutes) during his reporting window. He told the council the county towed 21 abandoned vehicles during the sheriff’s reporting period and pledged continued collaboration on human‑trafficking, homeless‑related and other public‑safety initiatives.

Councilmembers asked pointed follow‑up questions about the use of surveillance technology and drone deployments. Tovaleo said Vallejo has both fixed Flock license‑plate readers and dual‑purpose cameras (about 10 with video capability and roughly 140 LPR units across the city), and that deployment is overseen by the city’s surveillance advisory board and the police oversight commission. On drones, the chief said deployments are limited to tactical and search scenarios (for example, infrared for missing‑person searches).

Several councilmembers pressed for clearer, regular reporting on program outcomes and for integration across city‑funded violence‑intervention efforts such as Vallejo Vision, hospital‑based interventions and community partners. Staff said federally required grant metrics will be submitted by grantees and that the council can require additional reporting at the budget‑approval phase.

What’s next: council members asked staff to return with reporting steps tied to grant and program approvals and to continue coordination with the public safety subcommittee.