Police pension plans are some of the worst-funded in the US, putting pressure on cities that struggle to prevent crime while giving people enough incentives to join the police force, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The city of San Jose tried cutting police pension costs because of difficulties in affording other services like road repair and libraries, but hundreds of officers quit and response times to serious calls grew longer.

One officer who quit the San Jose police department told the newspaper that a lower cost-of-living increase and raising the retirement age to 60 from 50 were among the reasons to leave.

“You start to see what police work is really like every day,” Tim Watermulder, 35 years old, who fought in Iraq with the U.S. military before becoming a police officer, told the WSJ. “I really started thinking about ‘Can I do this job till I’m 60?’”

Pensions for police and firefighters have a median 71 cents for every dollar needed to cover future liabilities, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data provided by Merritt Research Services for cities of 30,000 or more. Broader municipal pension plans have a median 78 cents of every dollar needed to cover future liabilities, according to data from Merritt.

Pension plans got in a bind when they expected the stock market and other investments to produce healthy returns that would cover payouts to retirees. The 2008 financial crisis wiped out pension-plan earnings and put stress on municipal budgets, leading some cities to contribute less to the plans.

San Jose isn’t the only city that faces pension trouble. Memphis, Tenn., cut pension benefits and lost 100 policies. Homicides rose to a record 228 last year from 167 in 2014. Dallas saw its plan for police and firefighters earlier this year fall to a funding level of 36 percent, among the lowest in the nation.

Dallas sought help from the state government, which approved a package that requires the city to contribute an additional $25 million to $40 million a year to the pension plan while cutting benefits, the WSJ reported. The plan will still have less than half what it needs to cover its liabilities, according to an estimate provided by the fund to legislators.

Since October, 317 officers have left, and 67 more said they plan to leave in the coming months, according to the Dallas Morning News. During that time, 118 officers have been hired.

“We’re in a crisis situation, and it’s going to require some council and mayoral leadership to turn it around,” Gary Griffith, a former City Council member, told the newspaper.

Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates said the pension issue, suffering morale and an aging department have created "the perfect storm."

"And I think we were responding," she said, referring to city leaders. "I just don't think anybody realized how quickly the rhetoric around the pension would impact the numbers."

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