Board restores sheriff's POP team funding after heated public debate

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on July 14 to restore about $3 million to the sheriff's Problem Oriented Policing (POP) team by reducing the county's general-fund contingency. The measure passed after a daylong reconsideration of the board's recently adopted FY 2026-27 recommended budget.

Supporters said the POP team provides urgent, localized responses that prevent crime and protect small businesses. Chris Evans, representing the Antelope business community, said his district has invested in local security and relied on POP to address repeated drug activity and retail crime: "What we do need is the HOT team, we do need the POP team," Evans said, adding that POP presence has measurably reduced problems in his business district.

Community advocates and social-service providers urged the board not to tap contingency for law-enforcement restorations while programs for foster youth, food assistance and homelessness faced cuts. Natasha Minsker, who described herself as a District 1 resident, told the board: "You acted responsibly in June. The sheriff and the district attorney are not acting responsibly. They are manufacturing a crisis." Several speakers and local service agencies urged restoring funding for specific social programs instead of policing.

County staff and fiscal officers framed the restoration as a one-time adjustment to the adopted budget. Amanda Thomas, the county's chief fiscal officer, said the recommended approach was to use contingency now and, if additional ongoing funds become available, to backfill contingency in September as part of the final budget process.

Supervisor Pat Hume, who moved to reconsider the budget specifically to address POP, said the restoration was intended to be surgical: "There was a real-world effect after the budget decision that was untenable," Hume said, citing seasonal enforcement needs such as illegal-fireworks enforcement. The substitute motion to restore POP funding passed with Supervisors Desmond, Hume and Chair Rodriguez voting aye; Supervisors Serna and Kennedy voted no.

The vote makes the POP appropriation effective immediately. Staff said the adjustment will appear in the revised recommended budget in September, when the board will consider final budget changes following the state budget and the close of the county fiscal year.

What happens next: County staff will reflect the contingency reduction in the county's accounting and include the adjustment in September's revised recommended budget. Supervisors and members of the public signaled they expect further budget discussions during the September final-budget hearings, where other priorities — including foster-youth services and food-assistance impacts tied to federal policy shifts — will be revisited.