No confidence vote against SJ police chief scrapped

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The San Jose Police Officers' Association said Tuesday that it will not take a vote of no confidence against Police Chief Chris Moore -- but that its decision "should not be misinterpreted as a vote of confidence."

According to the association, the San Jose Police Department has been cut back to the point where quality of life in San Jose is affected, but Moore has done little to speak out against the cuts.

"With crime soaring in San Jose, officers leaving in droves and the safety of officers and residents we protect placed in daily peril, it should come as no surprise that one of our members recommended a vote of no confidence against Chief Chris Moore," association president Jim Unland said.

Board member Officer Howard Johnson said many members of the association are frustrated because they feel the chief isn't speaking out against what he called, "the erosion of the staffing, safety and morale of the San Jose Police Department."

According to the union, the department has shrunk by about 25 percent since 2008, and the cuts have resulted in the elimination of the gang suppression unit, the violent crimes enforcement team, and the vice unit.

Moore responded to the union this afternoon, saying he is glad one of its members proposed the no-confidence vote because it signals to him that he needs to better communicate the ways in which he is representing police officers' interests at City Hall.

"I'm glad they did," he said. "The level of frustration in our organization is real, it's palpable. I can feel it myself."

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