On September 13th, 2024 I created a post to Nextdoor after a very successful post to Reddit asking the simple question “What would make Sand City better?” This reddit post at last check had over 59,000 views and over 100 comments!
One of the questions I received on Nextdoor was the following:
With all due respect, Mr. Kilpatrick, I can’t figure out why Sand City has their own police department. I feel the same about Del Rey Oaks. – Ramona Olaeta-Reed
I responded with the following:
There are many reasons [to have a police department] but the clearest is response time.
The Seaside Police department is larger and serves a population of over 30,000.
Del Ray Oaks has a population of about 1,600.
Sand City has a population around 350.
Sand City swells during the work day to up to 40,000 people between the two shopping centers and the commercial businesses in the west end. So during the day we need a force to keep those businesses and customers safe. Sand City has a very healthy tax base especially for our population size and with no schools or libraries or other major public services spending our budget. Having our own force is a smart move to make sure businesses, their workers, customers and the residents who live here have a dedicated group of professionals to protect them.
The sales tax funds our police force so the folks who shop in Sand City should see the benefit. This is exactly what the Sand City PD provides.
Have you ever heard of a car being broken into in Sand City or Del Ray Oaks? I haven’t. The SCPD usually responds to my non-emergency call or inquiry in under 10 minutes, I don’t know any force that reacts faster to non-emergency.
For emergency calls it’s measured in seconds or minutes. An out sourced force can’t provide that level of service. These are some of the safest and best communities in California and having our own police departments that are beholden to the local council rather than another entity allows for the high quality services both of these towns enjoy.
The Seaside and Monterey police forces are great, but they wouldn’t have the same dedication to their communities as a police force managed by the community it serves.
The Sand City police force is about 35-40% of our cities budget and it is unlikely we would see a significant savings contracting it out to another agency. Keeping our force local and responsible to the community it serves is a better result than potentially saving a few percentage points on the cities budget. It also provides good jobs and benefits which the peninsula needs more of.
Our Sand City force is excellent and they allow for higher home values and safer commercial activities. Del Ray Oaks police force contracts with the Airport and provides services there making our airport high quality.
Both forces are money well spent and I would hate for either force to be merged with another. The police forces here do share dispatch and other services but each cities officers are much closer to the community that they work for.
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