Public Safety is the top priority of our neighborhood residents and our City Council, and we demonstrate this priority by allocating 48% of our General Fund budget to Public Safety as detailed in the chart below.  Despite our budget difficulties, spending on public safety has continually increased over the past decade.  We must also understand that public safety extends beyond the Police and Fire Departments.  Maintaining a safe and healthy city is also about the community services we provide, such as keeping our libraries and community centers open and maintaining our parks.  We dedicate 14% of our General Fund budget towards providing community services to our residents, and we must balance our needs in our public safety departments with other needs in our community.  The Police Department has a staffing plan, but it would cost over $120 million per year.  That’s more than San José spends on libraries, parks, community centers, senior services, gang prevention, and street repairs combined.

Keeping a city safe is a challenge that all big cities are facing.  There is not a one size fits all solution to crime and violence, but don’t be mistaken, as our city grows, we should continue to grow our Police Department.  To keep our residents safe and secure, we must make long-term plans to keep pace with our growing population.  I pledge to add at least 100 new officers to our Police Department by 2012.

This pledge to add 100 new officers will increase the size of the department to new levels as detailed in this chart.  For years the number of sworn officers in San José had remained stagnant, while our department budget grew 75%.  This fiscal year, the Police Department will grow to 1,395 police officers and reach an all-time high.  Under the leadership of this City Council, public safety is moving to the center of the policy agenda.

Maintaining a safe city involves more than adding officers, we need to continue our investment in preventing crime and helping at-risk youth to find alternatives to getting involved in gangs.  I committed to reaching out to the residents of San José to hear first-hand what our neighborhoods need to ensure they feel safe, are prepared for emergencies, and are aware of the resources available to them. 

In Fiscal Year 2007-2008, we added an additional $1 million dollars in one-time funding for the MGPTF -- a 33% increase and the first increase the program has seen since 1999.  This additional funding has allowed us to extend the hours at one community center per police division to target at-risk youth, resulting in 105 youth leaving the gang lifestyle.  This funding was also used to provide a much-needed and much-deserved cost of living adjustment to the 23 Community Based Organizations that partner with the MGPTF.  Through these critical services we have been able to see a 27% decrease in violent gang-related incidents from January to April when comparing our statistics from 2007 to those of 2008. This fiscal year, we have made that additional funding on going for the Mayor's Gang Prevention Prevention Task Force.

Since March, my office, in coordination with the City Manager, Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS), and the Police Department have reached over 1,200 residents through the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force (MGPTF) Town Hall Meetings and Youth Focus Groups.  These efforts were launched to solicit community solutions to our community problem of gangs and youth violence.  In hearing from our community, it is clear that there is still more that can be done to ensure the safety of our residents.  Even in tough budget times, we must make every effort to keep our residents safe.  We don’t have enough money to do everything we want, but we need to spend more money on public safety.