VISTA — City leaders have agreed to fund the addition of a second gang detective at the Vista Sheriff’s Station, following repeated requests from sheriff’s officials for increased resources in the city.
The Vista City Council agreed on April 28 in a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Corinna Contreras opposed, to allocate $434,882 toward the startup of the new gang detective position in the upcoming 2026-27 fiscal year. Ongoing costs for the position will be around $357,833 annually, including the salary and benefits, equipment, and departmental overhead.
Vista is one of several cities that contract with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office for police services rather than maintaining a local police department. The Vista Sheriff’s Station has a Street Narcotics and Gang Team that assigns cases to a gang detective in a specialized role.
The Vista Sheriff’s Station used to have two gang detectives, but the unit was reduced to one in 2009 due to a funding shortage. There have been eight different individuals in the gang detective role since then, said Vista sheriff’s Captain John Malan.
“The detectives in Vista over all of these years, they’ve left in less than two years because of the burnout to go to other places where they would have a partner,” Malan said.
In 2025, Vista’s sole gang detective handled around 50 total cases. Gang detectives in neighboring cities have a much less burdensome case load, Malan said.
In the same year, Escondido had two detectives handling 22 cases; Carlsbad had two detectives handling around 33 cases; Oceanside had four investigators handling around 26 cases; and San Marcos had two detectives handling 58 cases.
The addition of another detective would likely result in fewer cases overall, according to Malan, as it would make it easier to complete and close out existing cases.
“Gang investigations oftentimes involve very violent crimes, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and for one person, it’s an avalanche of tasks that keep that individual from being proactive to keep those crimes at bay,” Malan said.
Conversations about the need for increased personnel have been ongoing for several years, but the department’s calls have grown more urgent over the past couple of years. Vista Sheriff’s leaders have warned that Vista is falling behind other cities not only in addressing gang activity, but also in its overall crime reduction technology.
Deputy Mayor Dan O’Donnell, who brought forward the item, said he recognized the repeated requests for an additional gang detective and the support from the city’s Community Safety Commission for this proposal last year.
“I just want to point out, for the record, that you are not the first captain to request this,” O’Donnell said to Malan. “I made a promise a long time ago that if there was a need, whether it was equipment, mental health resources, training, or if it was an additional deputy, so long as you could justify it and explain to me what the need was for our city, then I would always be happy to support you.”
Some council members asked whether the Sheriff’s Office could simply reassign a deputy from another unit to the gang-enforcement detective role. Malan said it’s not that simple, since it is a specialized role that must be advertised department-wide if a vacancy opens.
The rest of the council, except for Contreras, also supported the proposal by the end of the discussion.
“I have seen gang crime absolutely terrorize neighborhoods in north and south Vista,” said Mayor John Franklin. “It is up to incorporated cities to pay for their own policing.”
Contreras questioned why Vista needs another detective when overall crime in the city has reduced over the years. Malan noted that gang investigations make up one small piece of the pie.
Because gang investigators will follow investigations outside of city boundaries when needed, Contreras also said it would make sense to have a cost-sharing agreement with the county for gang detectives.
Contreras also noted that the city owes thousands of dollars to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office to reimburse Vista Fire Rescue for services at the Vista Detention Center, and that this debt should be paid off first.
“Right now what I’m hearing is that we’re going to have a second gang detective in perpetuity, and I just question what the return on investment is,” Contreras said. “I think the county should pay if this is, you know, such an extraordinary need.”
Other council members said they supported having further conversations with the county Sheriff’s Office about the money the city is owed, but they did not want to put the issue of the gang detective on hold.
“I’m definitely not going to stop a need now, for a conversation that we have to have with a different organization,” said Councilmember Jeff Fox.
City Manager John Conley said the Vista has sufficient funds in the budget to cover the additional position.
Contreras also said she would be more supportive of adding two more traffic deputies, as that would better meet the needs of local residents. Other council members said they would like to bring this discussion back at another time.
Gang activity in North County
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Creighton, who supervises the North County Regional Gang Task Force, there are 17 Hispanic gangs in North County alone. In Vista, these include the Vista Home Boys (VHB) and Active Vandals, as well as Encinitas Tortilla Flats, Varrio San Marcos, Varrio Posole Locos in Oceanside, among others.
“That’s not to include any sort of outlaw motorcycle gangs or their puppet clubs or support clubs, as well as other Black and Samoan gangs that we see in Oceanside in some of the other cities, as well as any sort or White pride-type gangs as well,” Creighton said.
He noted that while street gangs do claim specific turf, they often cross city boundaries, particularly when engaged in narcotics trafficking.
Malan said there were 56 felony narcotics arrests in Vista in 2025, including one operation that resulted in 11 arrests early in the year. Councilmember Katie Melendez asked the Sheriff’s Office to bring back data breaking down how many of these arrests were gang-related.
“I would like to know that, and I think that that’s an important question for prevention … people who may or may not be recruited by gangs to sell drugs, those are folks that would benefit from some kind of intervention, especially since this is a socioeconomic circumstance that they might find themselves in,” said Melendez.
The Vista Sheriff’s Station also operates a youth program called Rise Above, which seeks to deter young students from gang activity.
