Sheriff’s POP unit takes center-stage as Sacramento’s budget fight reignites
As the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors prepares to revisit the county budget Tuesday, one proposed cut has become a focal point of debate: eliminating the Sheriff’s Office’s Problem-Oriented Policing Unit, or POP unit, a move supporters of the team say would have significant consequences for public safety.
Facing a $101 million shortfall driven by a long-term structural deficit and costs associated with HR 1, the Sacramento County Executive Office proposed an $8.9 billion budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year that would cut $57 million from general fund departments. The reductions would eliminate 194.5 full-time positions, including 38 from the Sheriff’s Office.
The POP unit, however, remained on the chopping block when the Board of Supervisors approved the amended budget on a 4-1 vote. Supervisor and board chair Rosario Rodriguez cast the lone dissenting vote, citing cuts to public safety funding, including the elimination of the POP team.
“I was not supportive of taking away the POP team, which has a critical impact on the unincorporated parts of the county,” Rodriguez said in an interview.
A week later, Supervisor Pat Hume introduced a motion to reconsider funding for the POP unit — a move seconded by Rodriguez, according to a social media post from the Rodriguez’s office June 16.
While Rodriguez and other supporters have pushed to preserve the unit, critics of expanding Sheriff’s Office funding argue that the county should instead invest in social and community services.
“Policing is not a preventative measure; it is a reactionary measure,” Christopher Camilo Carbajal-Carbajal, the program and campaign coordinator for Decarcerate Sacramento, an anti-incarceration community organization, said in a July interview. “What is prevention is investing in social workers — investing in housing, food, in improving people’s material and social conditions.”
A proactive policing approach
The POP unit is a six-person “proactive” policing team that works with community members to address recurring public safety and quality-of-life problems in their neighborhoods, according to Sgt. Bianca Reeve, the unit’s supervisor.
Reeve said the unit differs from traditional investigative teams because it aims to address long-term problems before they escalate, rather than investigate crimes that have already occurred.
“Detectives are very reactionary,” Reeve said in an interview. “They get the report, and then they are following up on that report, hopefully getting leads, hopefully identifying a suspect, hopefully making an arrest. My team exists to try and prevent problems.”
Working with businesses, residents and neighborhood watch groups, the POP unit receives tips from community members and investigates them. Reports can range from suspected squatters in vacant homes to possible narcotics activity, Reeve said.
POP unit officers typically observe a location to determine whether a report appears credible before conducting surveillance and contacting the parties involved.
During a June ride-along, Reeve’s team drove past an Arden Arcade apartment complex where the unit had received a tip about a suspected narcotics manufacturing lab. Recognizing the complex from a previous arrest but seeing little activity, the team planned to return later.
The same day, the unit was working to arrange a controlled purchase of illegal fireworks from a suspected seller ahead of the July Fourth holiday. While the operation was unlikely to stop every illegal sale, Reeve said issuing citations to sellers could deter future sales and purchases.
“Once we identify what the problem is, we can find a solution,” Reeve said.
Depending on the circumstances, solutions may include detaining individuals involved in the sale or use of illegal substances and items. Officers may also educate residents and business owners on “crime prevention through environmental design” — identifying conditions that may create an “inviting environment for criminal activity or nefarious activity” and correcting them, such as by replacing broken windows.
“The biggest thing that people will struggle to understand is what we do without any statistics or metrics,” Reeve said. “They’ll never know about the homicide we prevented or the overdose we stopped.”
Disparity between unincorporated areas, cities
If the POP unit is eliminated, its six officers would return to patrol assignments.
While the change may increase the number of patrol officers, Reeve argued that it would also reduce the department’s ability to devote officers to long-term neighborhood problems, citing the limited time patrol deputies have to spend on each call because of the volume of calls they receive.
Patrol officers face a “game of triage,” Reeve said, pointing to an automatic dispatch system that reorders calls based on the severity of the incident and priority, leaving some callers waiting for service for hours after first contacting dispatch.
During the June 25 ride-along, one call had been pending for 195 minutes.
Given the volume of calls, patrol officers may have only 20 to 30 minutes to respond to a call for service. For recurring issues, that can result in short-term intervention or mediation without long-term crime prevention, according to Reeve.
Rodriguez, pointing to the volume of calls the Sheriff’s Office receives, also argued that eliminating the POP unit would have a “critical impact on response times and being able to manage the issues that have a tendency to get out of hand,” especially for residents of unincorporated areas. Rodriguez represents the county’s northeast tier including the cities of Folsom and Citrus Heights, as well as unincorporated areas such as Elverta, Rio Linda, Antelope and Orangevale.
According to Sheriff Jim Cooper, the Sheriff’s Office received 270,515 emergency 911 calls for service last year, with an average response time of 14 minutes and 21 seconds — nearly four minutes longer than the Sacramento Police Department’s average response time that year.
“The number one thing that I believe that we, as elected officials, should handle for the unincorporated county is ensuring that they are safe,” Rodriguez said of the disparity in service times.
Calls for community investment
While supporters of the POP unit say the team prevents crime before it escalates, opponents of restoring its funding say the county should instead invest in community and social services — “true public safety,” Natasha Minsker, who facilitates the California Anti-Death Penalty Coalition and the Sacramento County Anti-Death Penalty Coalition, said in a July interview.
“Proactive policing as a concept, we think is misplaced,” Minsker said. “What we need are more social workers, community outreach workers, and professional mental health staff — those are the people that should be making contact with the folks who are in need.”
Minsker, who is also a member of Decarcerate Sacramento, an anti-incarceration advocacy organization, joined the organization in urging the Board of Supervisors to maintain the Sheriff’s Office cuts approved in June and redirect resources toward human and health services that would be cut in the upcoming fiscal year.
Under the tentatively approved budget, more than $17 million would be cut from child, family and adult services.
“The board cut critical services for those children and their families,” Minsker said. “Nobody’s coming back to revisit that next week. They’re talking about sheriffs, more badges, more guns.”
