Manteca Police reduced their response time to Priority One calls — active emergencies where a life is in danger or a crime is in progress — by nearly a minute in 2024.

It took officers to reach such calls 4:11 minutes from the time they were dispatched to arrival on scene.

That is down from 5:07 minutes in 2023.

The department’s goal is to get that time down to three minutes.

To work toward that goal, it is the professional assessment of Manteca Police Chief Stephen Schluer that the city needs 86 sworn police officers by mid-2026.

It is why Schluer plans to ask for three additional positions in the upcoming budget.

The department currently has all of its 80 allocated police officer positions filled, including two of five positions funded with a federal COPS grant.

The remaining three COPS partially funded positions are expected to be included in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Given Manteca is expected to reach 95,000 residents by year’s end, some believe the city needs 95 officers instead of the 86 the police department would have if the council is able to fund all six positions next fiscal year.

That is based on the assumption there is a standard of one officer per 1,000 residents,

No such standard as an official measurement of public safety effectiveness exists.

The department is focused on a service standard of 60-40 — 60 percent of the time officers are tied up on calls and 40 percent of the time they are proactively patrolling in a bid to deter crime.

 The goal of 86 officers compared to the current 80 is based on that objective.

Manteca Police in 2024 handled 41,552 incidents.

That includes 30,429 calls for service and 11,123 incidents initiated by the department’s 80 sworn officers while on patrol.

The data was part of a snapshot provided to the Manteca City Council during a recent mid-year budget review session.

 Police made 2,230 arrests of which 68 were individuals under the age of 18. They also issued 4,487 citations.

Dispatchers handled 27,260 9-1-1 calls in 2024. Of those, 99.66 percent were answered within 15 seconds.

There also were 109,983 non-emergency calls handled by dispatchers.

It was noted the department maintained a proactive zero-tolerance approach to gang and drug enforcement. The report on 2024 accomplishments also noted community outrace efforts such as Coffee with a Cop and National Night Out.

It also includes the Healthy Room Project that assisted 37 children with new bedroom furnishings. The endeavor was done on the officers’ own time.

Goals for this year include:

*Working to expand the animal shelter.

*Moving forward with plans for a new police headquarters.

*The established of a Real-Time Crime Center using federal funds.

*Re-implementing the Citizens Polcie Academy.

*Conducting a patrolling analysis in a bid to sharpen deployment of patrol officers and further reduce response times.

*Complete installing red light cameras and license plate readers.

*Switching to artificial intelligence assisted body worn cameras.

*Speed analysis for traffic complaints.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com