Even as police in Oakland, California, brace for potential unrest if a jury does not convict a police officer in a murder trial, city officials are scrambling to cut costs and may do so by sacking about 10 percent of the city's police force.
Across San Francisco Bay in the small city of San Carlos, city officials are going an extra step to balance their budget -- considering a plan to shut down the city's police force and contract with their county sheriff for law enforcement duties.
Oakland and San Carlos are not alone in California in suffering financial strain, and many more local governments in the state will over the near term consider scaling back police departments to help bring budgets into balance, according to analysts.
Other U.S. cities such as New York have also considered police layoffs to fend off cash crunches following the 2008-2009 recession.
"There is only so much efficiency you can squeeze out of a reorg," said Marianne O'Malley of the California Legislative Analyst's Office, a watchdog agency that tracks the fiscal condition of the state government and local governments.
TALE OF TWO CITIES
Local government coffers in the most populous U.S. state are bare after a two-year slide in property tax revenue and weak retail sales tax collections. The fall in income reflects consumer anxiety given California's troubling unemployment rate that is currently over 12 percent.
"It's very dire," said Lori Hsu, another analyst with the Legislative Analyst's Office, adding that the fiscal outlook for local budgets is "very bleak."
San Carlos City Manager Mark Weiss agrees.
"At the same time revenues are down, expenses continue to rise," he told Reuters on the heels of the San Carlos city council's vote to begin talks with their county sheriff's office to take over the city's policing to help close a $3.5 million budget shortfall.
"We simply need to change the way we do business ... to live within the revenue stream we have," Weiss said.
Residents of low-crime San Carlos may not be affected too much if their police force is disbanded and its officers are hired to do the same job for the county sheriff.
By contrast, Oakland could feel the loss of 80 of its nearly 800-strong police force. They were recently given layoff notices and more officers may also get pink slips unless the city's revenue rebounds.
Oakland is notorious for gun violence on its meanest streets. This month the city saw gunmen open fire on a vigil for a 17-year old boy who had been shot dead at a bus stop. A 19-year-old woman was killed in the attack. It took place near where Oakland's police union a few days earlier predicted at a news conference that layoffs would threaten public safety.
That is very much on the minds of Oakland residents because of another shooting -- one by former Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system police officer Johannes Mehserle.
He is standing trial for murder and the concern in Oakland is that he may beat the charge. Jurors will consider whether the officer, who is white, intentionally or accidentally shot and killed an unarmed, detained black man at an Oakland station of the rail system in early 2009.
Activists seized upon the shooting as a local equivalent of the police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, which culminated with deadly riots, looting and arson in the early 1990s in California's biggest city.
The shooting triggered protests that turned into riots in Oakland. The city's police department have been training for a repeat while city officials have been thinning their ranks to help close a $30.5 million budget gap.
Representatives for the city and its police union, who have been haggling over officers' contributions to their pension accounts, were not immediately available for comment.
Jeffrey Jensen, a north Oakland resident, was very concerned there could be fewer police when the trial ends.
"It could be explosive, literally," said Jensen, 45, an urban planner with a state agency.
Beyond the trial, he said police layoffs could be self defeating if they result in a rise in crime that hurts local business and causes city revenues to fall.
"It will put further downward pressure on economic development," he said.
