District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte speaks during a council meeting. Credit: Michael Karlis

District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte told colleagues on the dais that it would be “government malpractice” not to hire the 65 additional police officers recommended by a consultant the city hired to analyze its public safety issues.

“Let’s not let this be political,” Whyte said Thursday during Council’s A Session. “This is not about winners and losers. This is about making our community safer, and we will prevent crimes against our citizens, we will prevent more of those crimes in the coming  years if we have more officers on the street.”

During that same session, council unanimously voted to postpone a vote on a non-binding resolution to hire 65 additional SAPD officers, kicking the proposal back to the Public Safety Committee.

Whyte, District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito and District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears proposed the resolution last month after council only budgeted enough money to hire 40 new officers rather than the full number recommended by the consultant. Others on council scaled back the hiring plan due to an unforeseen decline in projected city revenue.

“My constituents overwhelmingly tell me they feel less safe today than they did five years ago,” Spears said during the meeting. “Every event I’m at, I hear those remarks. This is not political postering. We need to have these discussions now.”

Even so, recent data shows the Alamo City’s crime trends are moving in the right direction.

Overall crime declined 13% last year in San Antonio compared to 2024, and homicides are down 17%.

The issue of whether to hire the 65 new police officers will head back to council’s Public Safety Committee in May. If the hiring plan makes it out of committee, the full council will hash it out during budget discussions.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...