Seaside approves plan to hire more officers

Seaside leaders approve a plan to put more officers on the streets, but it could take a while to get them here. The plan is to help stop the recent spike in gang violence.

“It’s way overdue,” Hugh McKinley Smith, Sr. said.

The longtime Seaside resident has seen the violence on the city streets.

“We need protection,” Smith said.

And he’s getting it. The Seaside City Council approved hiring two new officers and a sergeant at a cost of under half a million dollars from the general fund.

“We are going to fill the ranks of our patrol division,” Seaside Deputy Chief Louis Lumpkin said. “

“If we hire more cops that can communicate with their districts,” Smith believes, “Crime and misdemeanor acts will disappear.”

Unfortunately the new officers may not be on the streets for months. In a perfect world, if they were to hire an experienced officer today, it would take five months before they were out to patrol by themselves. Deputy Chief Lumpkin says if it were a recruit or someone in the academy, it could take months longer. But, if it’s the right fit, Seaside police say it’s worth the wait.

“We would rather take a longer time to get the right officer on the street rather than rush through it,” Dep. Chief Lumpkin said.

Smith agrees, as long as in the end, they are there to protect the community.