South Bend Common Council Member Jake Teshka joined Tricia Sloma on 16 Morning News Monday to talk about the city's police force and gun violence.

"There's a lot of work to do here," Teshka said. "I've tried to make it a point to get out there and whenever I'm seeing officers in the street, to talk to them, thank them and to get their feel for how things are going in the department.

Teshka also spoke on last year's budget process where the number of officers budgeted dropped from 245 to 240.

"I thought it was a mistake then, and I still do. I think we need to actually be shooting higher for something along the lines of 260. There are some issues, not only budgetary but recruiting. It's getting enough folks who want to be police officers. It's also a capacity issue. The academy every year only has so many spots, so it's training those officers up or recruiting them from different agencies. We need to get creative with how we do this, but we're definitely understaffed in our police department."