Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol will no longer be carrying service weapons on duty, as the department and city policymakers adjust to new state regulations regarding law enforcement weapons certification.
The decision was sparked by Senate Bill 2, which took effect in 2022 and marked a change in training guidelines by establishing statewide oversight for law enforcement and requiring all officers to meet minimum standards through the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) program.
This particularly affects the Harbor Patrol, because in order to meet the new standards, the city would be forced to spend a significant amount of time and money to get the officers certified to keep their weapons on their duty belts. And since the Harbor Patrol would still be able to enforce harbor and city code without weapons — and since Santa Barbara Police already responds to any calls for penal code violations or arrests — the Harbor Patrol duties would remain largely the same without guns…