The Los Gatos Monte Sereno Police Department continues to tackle hiring amid a recent wave of retirements.

In the first of two annual reports on the department’s operations to the Los Gatos Town Council in 2025, Police Chief Jamie Field said the department has focused on efficiency, emergency preparedness and recruitment and promotion. Field said officials have been working on transition planning to keep the department’s institutional knowledge intact even as staff who have been with the department for years retire.

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Field said the department is continuing to fill open positions. Still, there were only 27 active sworn staff in the ranks in the second half of last year–down from 30 in the first half of 2024 and far below the 39 the department is budgeted for.

The department has been chronically understaffed since 2018, the last time it had a full complement of 39 officers. But Field’s report states that the department hired more sworn officers in 2024 than it has in any other calendar year in its history. The department also has a fully staffed dispatch team for the first time in over five years thanks to the recent hire of an eighth dispatcher, the report reads.

Sgt. Katherine Mann told this publication that in 2024, seven officers retired, three left for other law enforcement agencies and two left law enforcement altogether. The department hired eight officers who are currently working on patrol, and one is still in the academy, she said, adding that three additional hires did not complete the academy.

“We continue to hire and were successful in our hiring process,” Field said at the Jan. 21 council meeting. “We still have two officers that are in training, and we expect them to get off of training here in the next couple of weeks so they will be solo resources for us.”

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The department’s sworn staff logged 905 more hours of overtime from July to December 2024 than during the same period in 2023. The 4,335 overtime hours sworn staff put in over the second half of the year is only slightly down from the 4,724 in the first half. The overtime hours, Field’s report states, are largely due to coverage for special events like the Children’s Holiday Parade and Halloween.

Community members and town council members have long been supportive of the department, and that sentiment was evident at the Jan. 21 meeting. Diana Schnabel-Arevalo, Jewish Silicon Valley’s operating officer, thanked the department for its support and attendance at its Hanukkah celebration in town earlier this year.

“The dedication Chief Field and her entire staff has shown in regard to the welfare of Los Gatos and Monte Sereno is unprecedented,” she said. “We ask that the town continue to support the police department as they wholeheartedly do now, [and] to continue the level of service that we have all grown to know.”

Council members agreed. “I appreciate the struggle that all departments have in hiring,” Councilmember Maria Ristow said at the meeting. “It’s such encouraging news to know we are regaining footing and probably leading in terms of filling retired positions and being fully staffed in dispatch.”