Eureka sees lower crime, police chief says staffing challenges remain

Lower crime in Eureka has not erased the department’s staffing problem. Police Chief Brian Stephens said the city is seeing better public-safety numbers so far in 2026, yet Eureka Police Department still needs more officers to keep pace with the work on the street.

Stephens presented the department’s 2025 Annual Report to the Eureka City Council on March 17, pairing it with the military equipment use report required under California Assembly Bill 481 and the city’s annual security camera report. The 50-page, graphics-heavy report covered calls for service, crime statistics and program highlights from across the department, part of a broader push to show residents how the agency is using its resources.

The staffing picture has improved from the worst of the shortage, but it is not fully settled. In November 2025, Stephens told the council the department was “in a really good place” after a severe staffing shortage declared two years earlier. At that point, two officers were moving from field training to solo patrol, three recruits were preparing to graduate from the police academy the following month, and dispatch was fully staffed for the first time since 2008.

Stephens also pointed to a stronger enforcement pace last year. In the third quarter of 2025, officer-initiated activity was up 101 percent, traffic stops were up 257 percent for the quarter and 228 percent for the year, bike and pedestrian stops were up 315 percent, and public transport stops were up 480 percent and 482 percent. Those numbers suggested officers were spending more time making contact and looking for violations, even as calls for service trended down.

The department has also tried to make its work more visible to the public. In June 2025, Eureka Police launched an upgraded Citizens RIMS crime-tracking site with live and historical incident maps, interactive crime statistics, daily bulletins, stolen-vehicle information, missing-persons information and recent arrests. Stephens described it as a two-way communication tool for the public.

Recruiting remains part of the department’s immediate strategy. A Police Recruit posting opened Jan. 15, 2026, and closed Jan. 28, offering academy-student pay of $3,686 to $4,481 a month and post-academy pay of $6,100 to $7,415 a month. Successful recruits are sponsored through the local POST-approved Basic Police Academy.

Stephens, who joined Eureka Police in February 1999, became chief when Todd Jarvis retired effective Jan. 4, 2024. For Eureka, the challenge now is balancing lower crime with enough staffing to sustain it.