Amid a homicide surge in what once was dubbed “America’s Safest Big City,” 66 young San Jose cops turned in their badges Thursday as a $115 million budget shortfall led to the city’s first-ever police layoffs.

The somber embraces of laid-off cops with fellow officers come as tensions simmer between cops and city leaders over pay and benefit cuts needed to save jobs as more deficits loom. While the toll was much less than had been feared weeks ago because dozens of the 122 who were given layoff notices found jobs in other police departments, the cuts will take a historic toll on San Jose’s police force.

In addition to the cops let go, the city cut nearly 100 police positions left vacant by recent retirements and departures, shrinking the force from 1,271 to 1,106 officers. That’s fewer cops than the city had two decades ago, when San Jose had 200,000 fewer people.”

“It hurts a lot,” said Mayra Aguayo, 24, after turning in her badge, city identification card and keys at the San Jose Police Officers’ Association headquarters following a lunch for those cut from the force. “We gave our all to the city.”

Lt. George Beattie, the POA’s president, thanked the laid-off officers after the lunch, noting that most if not all had approved a contract cutting salaries 10 percent, preventing an additional 156 cops from losing their jobs.

“It’s not supposed to be this way,” Beattie said. “This is a very bad event for the city of San Jose and a very bad event for the Police Department.”

Chief Chris Moore called it “one of the saddest days I’ve had in my career.”

“We’ve lost many of our youngest and best,” Moore said. “I’m just hoping this is the floor. I can’t see us going through this again.”

Because the layoffs are determined by seniority, those laid off were recent recruits, who averaged two years on the job.

Thursday’s announcement that Assistant Chief Diane Urban will leave to become Hayward’s chief prevented a 67th San Jose officer from being laid off. But the force may lose 19 more officers in February if the city follows through on plans to outsource airport policing to the Santa Clara County sheriff to reduce costs.

It’s a stark turn for a city that only a few years ago was looking to expand one of the leanest urban police departments in the country. In 2006, when San Jose had 1,356 officers, then-chief Rob Davis urged city leaders to hire 478 more over five years.

Despite the “financial constraints,” Davis said San Jose needed more cops to keep the “Safest Big City” title awarded by a private organization based on federal crime statistics. At the time, San Jose already was losing the title – and it hasn’t regained it since.

After taking office in 2007, Mayor Chuck Reed had called for hiring 100 more cops over four years, and the force reached a high of 1,395 officers by 2009.

The city cut vacant police positions last year as the city bled $118.5 million in red ink. But officer pay concessions avoided layoffs.

Reed and other city leaders blamed Thursday’s layoffs on a 10-year run of deficits as employee costs have outpaced revenues, chiefly for generous public safety pensions. Over the last decade, San Jose has cut some 2,000 positions citywide, about 30 percent of its workforce.

“It’s sad to see good officers leaving the city when we should be hiring officers,” Reed said, adding that the city has still increased police and fire department budgets 1 percent this year while cutting all others 10 percent.

“We’ve increased the Police Department budget $100 million in the last decade and have less officers now than we had 10 years ago,” said Reed, who blames the increase in pension costs – $25 million this year alone.

Beattie and other officers blamed the layoffs on city leaders, especially Reed and City Manager Debra Figone. He said that while the city faces real financial woes, the officers did their part in agreeing to requested pay and benefit cuts. But, Beattie contended, city leaders dismissed options that could have kept more cops on the beat.

The options included applying for more federal grants, cutting council office budgets further and using money that the mayor has earmarked for next year’s likely special election aimed at slowing the growth in pension costs.

“The gang members are just waiting for this day,” Beattie said, noting that San Jose this year is on pace for a 30-year high in homicides. “The mayor and city manager have now made it acceptable to lay off police officers in the city of San Jose. They own it. It’s theirs. At some point in their lives, they’re going to regret this decision.”

Figone disputed Beattie’s assertion that she “botched” an opportunity to save more cops’ jobs by seeking more funding under a federal Community Oriented Policing Services grant, arguing it would have committed the city to spending $16 million it doesn’t have.

Reed said his proposed pension reforms will save far more money than it will cost to put them on the ballot. But he acknowledged that city leaders decided to fund programs such as libraries rather than spare more officers the budget ax. Residents, he said, wanted those programs maintained and believe they contribute to public safety.

Beattie said the police cuts will mean less attention to property crimes as the remaining officers focus on violent crime. It will also take officers longer to respond to calls, he said.

Aguayo, the laid-off cop, said the increase in response time is already evident. On her last shift Sunday, as she collected shell casings and blood for evidence from a shooting, calls came over the radio pleading for officers to respond to a rape in progress near the convention center and to handle a fight at a bar across the street from City Hall.

“They were screaming, calling for additional units,” Aguayo said, “and there were no units.”

Moore and the mayor did not dispute that the force will be strained, though the chief said the city still has “one of the finest if not the finest police departments in the country.”

Moore said he’s been “deluged” with calls from other chiefs statewide and beyond looking to hire San Jose cops facing the ax. More than 30 had been hired by Thursday, shrinking layoff totals.

Beattie said officers went to Palo Alto, Los Altos, Hayward, San Leandro and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.

Still, the mood was somber as the departing cops dropped their badges on a table and filed past more than two dozen uniformed patrol officers who had come to see them off with handshakes, bear hugs and moist eyes.

“I never, ever would have thought we’d get laid off,” said laid-off officer Wiley Griffin-Bagno, 29. “It’s just unfortunate. The citizens of San Jose will have to suffer because we’re gone.”

Contact John Woolfolk at 408-975-9346.