A staffing shakeup is coming to the San Jose police department.
Starting March 1, the agency's entire Metro Unit will be reassigned to patrol temporarily.
The move essentially dissolved the department's Metro Unit, which includes 23 officers and four sergeants.
Metro officers are a group of specially trained personnel who deal with gangs and undercover operations, including prostitution stings.
"We're talking about 400 narcotics investigations a year," said Sgt. Paul Kelly, president for the Police Officers Association. "That's what we're losing."
Forty percent of the unit's cases deal with gangs. Last year, the unit made 600 arrests, and confiscated 30 firearms.
The shakeup is meant to bolster the department's understaffed patrol units.
At this point the plan is to restore a reduced Metro Unit reduced by seven officers and one sergeant in mid-March.
Local
"There is no 'untouchable.' There is no untouchable unit or bureau that we've looked at," Assistant Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.
NBC Bay Area also has learned the department is now talking with the California Highway Patrol to possibly contract out some duties of traffic enforcement.
"We're looking at every option possible in order to assist us in maintaining our staffing levels to be able to do our core service," Garcia said. "So we're talking with several people, several organizations to see what it is they can do and offer to help us."
The police union said working with the CHP is not a long-term solution.
"We do not have enough officers to police this city, but supplementing with something like the CHP is not really a long-term solution because these are people who don't know the neighborhoods -- don't know the crime," Police Officers Association Vice President James Gonzales said.
