Manteca Police in 2025 reduced their response times to Priority One calls — where a life is in danger or a felony is in progress — by 24 seconds.

The time from dispatch to arrival dropped down from 4 minutes and 11 seconds in 2024 to 3 minutes and 47 seconds last year. That reflects a decrease in response time.

That said, Police Chief Steve Schluer indicated during the recent City Council goals and budget workshop the goal is to cut that response time down to 3 minutes in the fiscal year starting July 1.

Part of the strategy was the council — for the first time in recent memory — allowing the hiring of three out of budget officers to help cover holes in department staffing that has triggered extensive overtime due to a number of officers dealing with long-term worker’s compensation issues.

The department is authorized 82 officers.
The three additional officers will be funded in part from mandatory overtime required by officers to fill in staffing gaps.

Manteca Police during 2025 handled:

*31,196 calls for service.

*13,129 officer initiated calls via patrol efforts.

*Wrote 5,697 police reports.

*Wrote 385 crash reports that excludes fender benders and such where there wasn’t an injury or substantial property damage.

*Made 1,927 arrests, including 57 juveniles.

*Issued 9,886 red light citations.

*Issued 5,110 other citations.

The dispatch center handled 26,847 9-1-1 calls last year.

Dispatch also had 78,772 non-emergency inbound calls and made 24,977 non-emergency outbound calls.

Of the 130,327 overall calls, 99.61 percent were answered with 15 seconds.

Goals for the upcoming year are:

*Breaking ground on the new police station at 680 South Main. It is tentatively set for August.

*Start work on developing a real-time crime center.

*Continue the citizens’ academy, the Junior CSI academy, and the chief’s academy.

*Implementing the drone as first responder program.

*Obtaining a Bearcat armored personnel rescue vehicle. There is a grant funding pending for 50 percent of the cost.

*Renew the certified autism center certification.

*Implement Tactical Wellness and cardiovascular testing for all officers.

*Contonue seeking grant funding to augment city general fund expenditures.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com