Hello Gilroy! It’s time I circle back to the Gilroy Police Department and invite you to the next Conversation and Coffee with me and Police Chief Espinoza on Saturday, October 1. As you might guess, law enforcement and increased police presence throughout our city are quickly becoming a top concern of our residents and businesses. Frustrations with theft, vandalism, drug and alcohol use in public, lewd acts, large and disruptive gatherings, events held without permits, drag racing, excessive speeding, just to name some of the complaints I receive, are reaching all-time highs. Our police officers often cite and/or arrest the same individuals for the same crime over and over, a remedy for which we look to the California voters.

Please join us on October 1 at 9:30am in Council Chambers, 7351 Rosanna Street, to talk about the resources within our Gilroy Police Department and the challenges we face going forward.

Mayor Marie Blankley, CPA

The Gilroy Police Department is comprised of 65 sworn officers and 34 professional support staff, all of whom diligently serve our Gilroy community. I am extremely proud of the great work that our folks bring forth daily. The last couple of years have been particularly challenging for our department. Nonetheless, our goal is always to provide excellent public safety services to our community.  I’d like to highlight just a couple of our technology and engagement efforts that have enhanced our ability to maintain our service levels.

Police departments across the nation are experiencing recruitment and retention challenges. Many are working with dwindling numbers and scrambling to implement plans of succession. Often, we ask our existing personnel to take on more, leading to exhaustion and burnout. The wellness of our officers is paramount to ensure a healthy and resilient workforce. We recently began a Wellness program that affords our personnel a wellness toolkit and the ability to utilize resources expeditiously and confidentially.  This is the beginning stage of a program that we can build upon for the continued health and well-being of our officers.

We have implemented aggressive recruitment and hiring strategies to ensure that we continue to have a pool of candidates suitable to join our team and fill our current vacancies. With approval of the City Council, we can increase police presence throughout the city by increasing the number of officers in our department. We are always in search of qualified and local talent, and we encourage anyone interested to log onto the city’s website, call or visit us for more information on becoming part of our department.

We recently resumed our partnership with the Gilroy Unified School District, following a break during the pandemic, and reintegrated our two School Resource Officers (SROs) at both Gilroy and Christopher High Schools. They have employed a best practice approach and are focusing on the following primary purpose areas.

Both of our SROs have participated in Restorative Justice Training and have been instrumental in maintaining a safe environment. This school year has been particularly busy for our SROs. Aside from their daily campus engagement, counseling, and educational sessions, they have availed themselves during off hours to investigate potential threats of school violence. School safety is of paramount concern, and their partnership with school district administrative staff has been critical to the resolution of these incidents.

Issues relating to quality of life and the unhoused are complex and require a comprehensive approach. We continue to employ a collaborative and collective philosophy with local and county service providers to address these challenging concerns.

The two-officer Quality of Life pilot program for fiscal years 2022 and 2023 began as a recommendation from the Gilroy City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Homelessness and was later approved by the City Council. The team started at the beginning of the year and has been the primary point of contact for unhoused residents with efforts relating to coordination of resources, referrals, and law enforcement and protection from criminal acts relating to and within the unhoused community. As they collaborate for solutions, they have cultivated partnerships with the service providers and other community stakeholders. I recently spoke with a community member that shared with me that their impact is appreciated and that they are known in the unhoused community by their first names of “Bobby and Cameron.”

We are excited to report that we successfully launched our new comprehensive Sunridge Rims Records Management and Computer Aided Dispatch Systems. This system replaces our antiquated software and will afford us a best practice approach to legislative mandated reporting and information sharing with allied agencies in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. A public portal will be made available on our department’s website. Our administrative team is currently working with the vendor on the final features. We hope to provide access to the community in the next coming months.

The South County Restorative Justice Youth Diversion Program (Diversion Program) provides an opportunity for youth who engaged in conduct that harms others and themselves to come together with those who have been impacted by the behavior, including victims and community members, to collectively address the harm that occurred at a community level. Participation in the Diversion Program is an alternative to the traditional path that follows after a youth receives a citation. Youth that meet the Program’s eligibility requirements (based on the severity of the crime) are able to complete the Diversion Program, which removes the youth from further consequences within the Juvenile Justice System. Successful completion will result in the youth’s case being sealed.

The Diversion Program Team is comprised of South County law enforcement agencies, community-based organizations, school districts, county agencies and the South County Youth Task Force. The processes and practices of the Diversion Program are grounded in trauma-informed and restorative justice principles. The Diversion Program works to address the root causes of harmful youth behavior while also being tailored to his or her specific needs. Through collective efforts, the Program seeks to provide youth and their families with the support and services they need to grow and thrive, to bring in and uplift the voice of victims and community, to help youth account for their actions in a restorative manner, to hold family structure and community accountable for their role in supporting youth, to use languages that families understand, and to promote public safety for all.

National Night Out is a community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships throughout the nation. It is typically celebrated on the first Tuesday of August. After the incident at the 2019 Garlic Festival, we were forced to cancel our National Night Out celebration because we were actively dealing with the investigation and aftermath. As a result, we scheduled National Night Out for the first Tuesday of October, which is another recognized National Night Out day of celebration.

Last year, we made the decision to continue with the first Tuesday of October for Gilroy’s National Night Out celebration. Several reasons factored in, including our staff capacity and the proximity to the anniversary of the Garlic Festival incident. We also decided to celebrate police and community relations on the first Tuesday of August with an “Ice Cream with a Cop” event next to the police department. This ice cream social has been well-attended in each of the last two years. Remember to save the date of October 4, 2022, for our National Night Out celebration.

We just concluded our second ever Youth Academy. A group of 25 high school-age students participated in a weeklong hands-on program aimed at providing insight into our police department and a career in policing. The participants engaged in activities ranging from processing a crime scene to building clearing techniques. This effort was also made possible with the sponsorship of the Gilroy Youth Task Force, a local nonprofit organization focused on at-risk youth.

Our Community Academy series is also underway. The Spanish Community Academy is currently in session three, and the next academy facilitated in English will begin in October. We are still accepting applications for this class.

I hope this provides a small insight on what has transpired this past year. I look forward to personally speaking with you, listening, and answering any questions you may have on October 1, 2022. I am always available for a phone call or email at (408) 846-0310 or pedro.espinoza@cityofgilroy.org.

Thank you,

Pedro