Santa Cruz PD rolls out new strategy for policing the city

UPDATE 2/7/18 5:35PM
The Santa Cruz Police Department is rolling out a new strategy for policing the city.

Police Chief Andy Mills said the department will start “Neighborhood Policing” on March 1st. It’s something the department has been researching for months and out of all the strategies, seemed to make the most sense for the community.

“So what we looked at is some of the best practices in the country and one of the best practices that has driven crime down enormously is neighborhood policing. Going into these communities, finding those problems, solving those problems and then watching crime take a dive,” says Chief Mills.

The city will be divided into 5 parts with Police Lieutenants heading up each division.

Chief Mills says this new approach will take all hands on deck, “What we’re doing is now taking as many bodies as we possibly can have in the department and focusing on these problems so we’re taking every specialized unit, we’re taking every body out of headquarters except a couple of positions like school resource officer, we think that’s important to keep an officer in the schools and then we also have a gang task force officer. We’re leaving those two in place, but literally everyone other available position in the department is being deployed to the field. We’ve re-deployed 20 personnel, and then three Sergeants and five Lieutenants all to be focused on nothing but solving problems in each neighborhood of the city.”

Chief Mills said within each area there are different needs and this will help focus on the problems at hand and is hopeful it will reduce crime in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz residents KION spoke with say they like the idea. “I do feel like it allows for a greater amount of specialization and also I think it means not only the cops are more familiar with people in the communities that they’re serving but it means, it gives the public and opportunity to feel more trusting and familiar with the police that they can turn to,” says Megan Rudesill.

Resident Melyssa Demma agrees, “I think it’s a great approach, I think that all problems need to be contained and addressed individually because everything cannot be under one big umbrella.”

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The Santa Cruz Police Department is rolling out a new strategy for policing the city.

Police Chief Andy Mills said the department will start “Neighborhood Policing” on March 1st. It’s something the department has been researching for months and out of all the strategies, seemed to make the most sense for the community. “So what we looked at is some of the best practices in the country and one of the best practices that has driven crime down enormously is neighborhood policing. Going into these communities, finding those problems, solving those problems and then watching crime take a dive,” says Chief Mills.

The city will be divided into 5 parts with lieutenants heading up each division.

Chief Mills said within each area there are different needs and this will help focus on the problems at hand and is hopeful it will reduce crime in Santa Cruz.

KION’s Ashley Keehn will have the full story on News Channel 5,46 at 5 and 6 p.m.