A few weeks ago, San Jose police officers rescued a 14-year-old girl from a life of prostitution. Her pimp had brought her to San Jose from Fresno. Our officers found her walking the streets north of City Hall selling her body while her pimp looked on from afar. On another night, officers made an arrest of another prostitute walking our streets. She said she came from Nebraska because she heard that San Jose was a safe place for her to work. We hear that a lot these days from the prostitutes and the street-level drug dealers.

About a mile north of where the 14-year-old was found, construction proceeds at a hurried pace to complete a new card club. Next to it, a hotel is planned. Meanwhile, the City Council is working out the details to tax and regulate our bustling medical-marijuana industry.

Gambling, prostitution and drugs; I would like to see the slogan the Chamber of Commerce comes up with as it tries to sell our city to outside business interests. We always took pride in our “Safest Large City in America” title; now that sentiment has been corrupted by the criminal element around the Bay Area and beyond. Its members are “safely” flocking to our city to ply their trade. They know that the police still have enough presence to prevent the turf wars that spring up around these crimes, but we don’t have enough police to prevent the street-level crimes themselves.

How long will we be able to hold back that violence is anyone’s guess. We have officers resigning at record rates. In 2010, 10 officers resigned from the department. So far this year, 38 have resigned with another 30 in the pipeline. That’s in addition to the 66 officers laid off earlier this year. As our numbers continue to dwindle, our ability to combat crime is undermined. Our metro unit, once responsible for keeping a lid on all of this, no longer works these crimes. Instead it combats gangs full time, just like the Violent Crimes Enforcement Team used to do before it was dismantled. Our vice unit no longer exists. That function has been folded into one of the many responsibilities of our new Covert Response Unit. The unit’s 14 officers also handle mid- to high-level drug dealers, the felony apprehension responsibilities that used to belong to SWAT and any other covert work needed by the department.

If we continue down this road, we will lose control. We haven’t had a police academy since 2008. None is planned. It takes a minimum of 18 months to hire and train a police officer. How will we catch up? Our city will become unrecognizable to those of us who have been around for several decades. The problems this city faces are enormous. It will take great leadership to guide us through the challenging times we find ourselves. I’m afraid the current city leadership is not up to the task.

I’m left to think about that frightened and abused 14-year-old child who was forced into prostitution. Forced to submit to grown men who, for a small amount of cash, abuse her body to satisfy their most animalistic of urges. My nightmare is that when she or others like her are finally at the end of their rope and call 911 for help, we won’t have an officer close enough or available to respond.

JIM UNLAND is a sergeant in the San Jose Police Department and vice president of the Police Officers Association. He wrote this article for this newspaper.