Chula Vista Police Chief Roxana Kennedy talks staffing, technology and eastern substation

San Diego County’s second-largest city needs more police officers, according to its top cop.

Chula Vista Police Chief Roxana Kennedy has been blunt about what she calls a “staffing challenge” — turnover among the department’s nearly 300 officers and the fewest officers per capita in the region, even as the city sees some of the area’s fastest population growth and continues to expand eastward.

“This department is going to have to grow at a very significant rate,” she said at a public meeting in July. “Right now we are the lowest staffed department in San Diego County.” 

With close to 300,000 residents, Chula Vista is third in jurisdiction population, behind the San Diego Police Department and the sheriff’s office. Yet Chula Vista ranks last in the county for law enforcement spending per capita and its sworn officer-to-population ratio. 

Kennedy has led CVPD for nine years and is the department’s first female chief of police. inewsource sat down with her last week at police headquarters to discuss her thoughts on the city’s police numbers, the challenges that come with it and CVPD’s use of technology in its work. 

How do you address the very unique needs that Chula Vista PD has? 

I know everybody uses I-805 as a boundary. From what I’m hearing from some segments of the community, the eastern portion of the community feels kind of like this is way too far for them to drive. What we do that a lot of people don’t understand is we deploy officers to the field so that officers don’t respond from a station, they respond from a beat. 

But I think what we’re hearing from the community, the community wants more cops. They want to see a cop on every corner. They want to see cops in parks. Because people want to feel safe. In the eastern portion of the city, we just added two more beats out there. 

Is that difficult — adding two more beats while understaffed? 

It’s very difficult, but it’s important. And I’m not just hearing that from the community, I’m hearing it from the officers. We don’t want people to be waiting long periods of time when you need the police to be there. The area out east is vast, and there’s a lot of traffic congestion. And then we’re also starting to build upward. And as you build upward, that creates more challenges, too. 

We may have to go to two-officer vehicles, I don’t know. There’s all kinds of strategies that can go into play as we look at ways to protect our community. We are the safest community in San Diego County, and we have been for years and I believe it’s the mindset of our officers and the way that we put our community first and leveraging technology. 

I would love to have just roving cops that could stay out there and be available all the time to do proactive and preventative policing. I don’t have enough people to do that right now, unfortunately. Council has made it a priority to have a consultant come in and look at, if we do a substation, where should a substation be? What would the cost be? What would the staffing needs be? All these things have to come into play right now.

I walk around (headquarters). I’m going to estimate we have potentially four to five years before we max out within this department. That doesn’t have anything to do with under staffing. It has to do with the building only being able to provide so much room for so much time. And I think that’s what the consultant coming in on the substation will be able to look at. That’s my hope. I’m very hopeful that they’ll do a lot of outreach, get input from the community on what is important to them. 

We also have to look at our southern portion of Chula Vista. That is a very busy area, and it’s still a distance away. So will we have small substations? What is going to be the best for our department and for our community? The only way that you’re going to find that out is by doing surveys, research, community forums. I think we’re moving in the right direction. People thought that I was opposed. It’s not that I’m opposed at all. I just want to make sure we do the right steps.

What is the biggest impact of the understaffing issue and what are the major concerns for CVPD and for residents? 

When you call the police, you expect them to be there. We have a triage system, just like you do in the medical field. When it comes to a call of a burglary — let’s say, for instance, somebody is not home. They come home, they find out that their house has been burglarized. They’re traumatized by it. Who wouldn’t be, right? Someone came into your home. They took your items. You’re frustrated, you’re concerned. When you call the cops, you want them there. You want to know that your report is taken seriously, and it’s done right then and there, that evidence is collected and all these things. When the suspect is gone, sometimes on those calls, it can take a long period of time and lost property. 

And so for me as a chief, I know that when I tell you that our crime rates are low, that we’re the safest city in San Diego County, if you’ve been a victim, you don’t care. You don’t care because you’ve been victimized. I want my officers to understand that when people call the police, they want us to be there. They want to feel like they’re heard and things are documented. And right now, with our staffing numbers being low, sometimes our community is waiting long periods of time. Sometimes they’re waiting for 15 hours.

Back to the substation discussion for possibly east Chula Vista. Where were those thoughts about it? How important would that station be, and what are your thoughts as that consistently gets discussed?

I’m happy that it’s being discussed. There’s not been enough public input to determine exactly where it’s going to be. I know I have twso council members that are very adamant that they want it out east, and it seems logical because of the distance to have it out there, but I would like to get community feedback on that, and I’d like to determine what size of a substation we are going to have.

Do we need to make it a mini-headquarters? Do we need to make it a substation? We have a storefront at the Otay Ranch mall. That office offers services, but not to the level that some would want. In the meantime, while we’re getting ready and gearing up for a substation, what would they like? Would they like to be able to file a report at the storefront? Would they like to be able to order reports and then pick them up there so they don’t have to drive all the way here? But the challenge is, I don’t really have the staffing right now. I’m using senior volunteers, and we’re piecemealing community relations officers and community service officers to go out there during different times. And that’s hard to put that on a senior volunteer that is volunteering their time. My hope is that the discussion will continue with our city leadership to determine whether or not we want to designate staffing for that storefront right now, so that we can get a better feel for the community, what their needs are.

You have talked about COVID and political demonstrations as maybe the diagnosis of this understaffing issue. What are your thoughts on that? 

Now that I look back, it didn’t affect us in 2020. (In) 2021, after everything that happened with George Floyd, I did not like what I saw. That was in Minneapolis. That was not in Chula Vista. But the whole world changed their view of law enforcement and officers were feeling it even here in Chula Vista. People were flipping them off, saying things. ‘Are you going to choke me?’ ‘I can’t breathe.’ I’m not saying anyone was wrong. It was a tough time, and it made us really reflect. I’m the president of the Chiefs Association, and I had people coming in here upset with me for what was happening in other places, and it was just their frustration. Everybody was going through a lot, and I think some officers that we had for many years just decided to retire. I think it was in 2022 we started seeing the slide, and I think people started looking at things differently. 

A key right now with law enforcement is wellness. The job itself takes its toll on people. It’s hard on you, mentally and physically. I heard somebody was judging something the other day, and I’m like, Have you been to a homicide scene? Have you seen a person die? Have you done CPR and done everything that you could, and then they didn’t make it? I’ve had officers crying. I’ve had them trying to lift them up and let them know you did everything possible, and that family saw that you tried, but it was their time, right? So it encompasses a lot, and it’s a challenge to keep people well and keep them focused, and keep them committed to serving. I was praised in the beginning for how we didn’t have people leaving. Then all of a sudden it started happening to me. It’s happening to everybody. There’s only so much that you can do. We try to create a family environment. 

I say the heart behind the badge is important. It’s what’s behind the badge that makes the biggest difference. If you don’t have a heart for service, then you can really tarnish what law enforcement stands for. So that’s why it’s so important to me, who we hire into this department. I interview every single officer. I’m very proud of this department. I’m proud of this community. I think we partner together very well. That doesn’t mean everybody is happy, right?

What other recruitment tactics have you guys taken to alleviate this issue? 

We do many teen academies. They bring in youth and they introduce them to law enforcement. They’ll go through the crimes of violence. They’ll learn about our drone program. They’ll learn about traffic. They’ll learn about how the homicide team goes out with the forensic teams. Then these kids, from 14 to 21, they get so excited they want to be part of our cadet program. 

And we even have activists come in. I love activism. Activism helps me see things from a different perspective. We bring in community activists to teach our officers, they go through cultural competency training. For instance, on our drone program, some of the comments that were made from people in the community and from activism, I said, you know what? I never thought of that. That’s a good point to bring up. When we’re out there with our drones, they were afraid that we’re looking in their backyards and doing stuff as our drones returned to our home bases. We had them create in the system, the company that we use, software that automatically tilts the camera to the horizon. So as the drone comes back, it’s not looking down. We listen to the voice of our community, and that’s how we make decisions. So if people remain silent and they complain on the outskirts, we may never hear about that until it becomes crisis mode. But the ones that engage with us, we’ve had really good conversations about things and made great decisions on that. 

This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.