The Solano County Civil Grand Jury released a report this month outlining the challenges the understaffed Vallejo Police Department has in responding to 911 calls for assistance.
California’s civil grand jury system provides independent investigations into issues in counties and is composed of residents who select which areas or problems they want to explore. The jury creates its report and then requires leaders such as boards of supervisors, city councils or city or county departments to respond.
Entitled “Vallejo 911: Faster Responses, Uncertain Future,” the Solano County jury recommends that the city work harder to entice and retain more officers by offering a better pay and benefits package and also that it continue its contract with the Sheriff’s Office, which has been providing deputy support. The contract is set to expire at the end of the year.
The report released on June 15 follows up to a jury report from 2023 on Vallejo emergency response times, which they found averaged over 80 minutes. This report examined what has changed since then and what remains uncertain.
Using the Sheriff’s Office led to reduced response times, but the contract expires on Dec. 31. The jury found that there are currently no contingency plans to deal with the problem in 2027.
Bankruptcy crippled public safety
The roots of the problem lay in two main issues. Vallejo’s 2008 bankruptcy had an impact on public safety, reducing the number of sworn officers and the department has not recovered from that, the jury found.
The city is struggling to get new officers, partly because the pay is higher in nearby departments that also offer more competitive benefits. According to a study cited by the jury, Vallejo officers were nearly 14% below the median salary and nearly 18% below total compensation compared to other departments.
The problems with use of force and officer conduct have also affected morale. Vallejo received national attention for its comparatively high fatal officer shooting rates, with high-profile cases such as the killing of Sean Monterrosa by an officer in June 2020, the killing of Willie McCoy in 2019, and a “badge-bending” scandal that revealed that some officers tipped the edges of their badges every time they killed a suspect.
The jury did not discuss the payouts the city has had to make in lawsuits regarding these deaths, with McCoy’s case alone hitting Vallejo with a $5 million settlement.
According to the grand jury report, Vallejo officers were nearly 14% below the median salary and nearly 18% below total compensation compared to other departments.
For its research, the jury examined response times from 2022 through March 31, 2026, with the highest response time being 221 minutes in 2024 and the lowest being 65 minutes in 2026.
The jury did break down the response times by priority, with Priority 1 being “serious crisis or life-threatening situation requiring immediate urgent action,” Priority 2 being “high priority, acute situations that are not life-threatening,” and Priority 3, “non-emergency, less time sensitive.”
According to the jury, in March the response time for Priority 1 calls in March 2025 was about 13 minutes, dropping down to nine minutes by March 2026. Priority 2 and 3 calls fared worse, with 300 minutes for Priority 2 in 2025 and 477 minutes for Priority 3, and for 2026, 144 minutes for Priority 2 and 263 minutes for Priority 3.
Priority 1 call responses improved 31% in 2026 over the previous year, followed by a 53% improvement in Priority 2 and a 45% improvement in Priority 3.
Police Department severely understaffed
As for staffing, currently the Vallejo Police Department has 40 patrol officers who work six per shift, though sometimes only four are on shift. The goal should be 10 officers per shift, the report said. Currently the department has 114 positions allocated but only 82 of them are filled, with 23 applicants still in the application process.
The jury made several recommendations. First, the city should develop a contingency plan no later than Oct. 1 before the Sheriff’s Office contract expires on Dec. 31. And the city should consider extending the contract.
“After the contract expires, there should be no lesser level of service that the citizens of Vallejo currently receive,” reads the report.
Second, the city should attempt to offer a competitive compensation plan to recruit and retain officers.
Finally, the jury found a lack of transparency in the public daily incident logs, which the body said should contain priority levels of calls and their response times.
The City Council is required to respond to the report, though no date was given as a deadline. The Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office were also invited to respond but are not required to.
