Feeling the burden of a lack of law-enforcement personnel in California, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department struggles to fill open positions and keep the minimum number of patrol officers on the street.

But with a new contract for patrol officers and a shift in recruitment strategy, Police Chief Terry Daniels hopes to have more officers patrolling the streets by this fall.

South Lake Tahoe currently has allocations for 43 officer positions through the city's general fund but is short nine officers in its patrol division.

"This is not a South Lake Tahoe issue, this is a statewide issue," Daniels said. "Every chief and sheriff I've talked to has recruiting issues."

Estimates for the number of vacant police officer positions in California run as high as 15,000, but Bob Stresak, spokesman for the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, estimates there are about 10,000 unfilled law-enforcement jobs around the state.

Many factors contribute to the shortage of qualified law-enforcement officers throughout California.

A recent wave of police officer retirements, as well as rigorous application requirements for police officers, are among the major reasons behind the shortage, Stresak said.

"Drug use has been a big issue," Daniels said. "A lot of people don't pass the background check."

The physical demands of law enforcement also have kept a heavier population from being viable applicants, Daniels added.

Obesity among adults has increased from 15 percent in 1980 to almost 33 percent in 2004, according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

A greater number of military personnel - a traditional source of officers for the South Lake Tahoe Police Department - also are serving extended stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, Daniels said.

Potentially the largest obstacle to attracting officers to the police department is the high cost of living relative to the pay in South Lake Tahoe.

"We're all fighting for the small, reduced pool of applicants that are out there," Daniels said. "It's a really competitive market."

Although Daniels maintains the shortage has not affected the quality of police work in town, understaffing has caused response times to increase and follow-up investigations to take longer.

"It just takes longer to reach calls," Daniels said. "We still come, but it may take a little bit longer than what people are accustomed to."

Four patrol officers is considered the minimum number to effectively patrol South Lake Tahoe's streets.

At times during the shortage, which has been happening for at least the past year, the department sometimes has reduced patrols to three officers during slow periods to relieve overworked officers.

Special assignments, such as a narcotics task force and gang units, also have suffered because of the understaffing at the police department.

"We have a growing gang problem. I don't have staff to put toward that issue," Daniels said. "Those kinds of things are not being properly addressed until I can get staffing where it should be."

Although Bonanza Produce Manager Johnny Grossi said he'd like to see a greater police focus outside of the state line area, he's been satisfied with the police follow-up to four incidents of vandalism at the store over the past six months.

"They were really good about it," Grossi said. "They were here almost daily."

While the quality of law enforcement may not have suffered, the long hours required by officers to make up for the short staffing have taken their toll on the department.

"I'm burning out staff. People are working too many hours," Daniels said. "During our exit interviews, one of the common themes is they're tired of working too many hours of overtime. We're hurting our people when we overwork them."

"What we have done, we have tried to recruit lateral officers - trained officers trained from other areas," Daniels said. "That strategy has not worked."

Instead, the department hopes to recruit and train officers from the local community, as well as surrounding areas, such as the Carson Valley.

By recruiting officers who already have a connection to and knowledge of the local community, Daniels hopes to attract high-quality officers and increase the retention rate of those hired by the department.

The concept makes sense to at least one South Lake Tahoe police officer who was raised at the South Shore.

"It was really important to me to stay up here," said Patrolman Andy Eissinger, who joined the police department after three years as a police officer in Yerington, Nev.

It's unknown if the shift in strategy will work, but the department will have sent a total of five officers to police academies in Sacramento and Napa by the end of the summer, and Daniels hopes to have them on the force in the fall.

"We have never in our history sent five people to the academy," Daniels said.

The police chief praised the South Lake Tahoe City Council for allocating two new patrol positions during the 2007-08 budget cycle - something that has not been done in 15 years - but acknowledged the allocations are irrelevant without the people to fill those positions.

In March, the city council approved a three-year contract for police officers, who have been in negotiations with the city since their previous contract expired in October 2006.

"We were so far below the competition that recruitment was difficult at best," Councilwoman Kathay Lovell said.

Both Lovell and Daniels expect the new contract to help recruitment efforts.

"Absolutely, I think that's going to help," Daniels said.

Of the nine vacant patrol positions, two patrol officers are out on long-term disability.

Although he declined to go into specifics, Daniels said he also is "hopeful one of them will be back very soon."

Two officers have quit within the past month, and Daniels expects two retirements "probably next year," so the five new officers won't completely resolve the police department's staffing issues, but Daniels remains optimistic.

"It's truly a buyers market. You have to be competitive," Daniels said. "(The new contract) is a great improvement. I'm hopeful that recruitment will improve and we'll lose fewer candidates to other jurisdictions."