11/24/2025
TO: PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE
AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT
COMMITTEE
FROM: Jennifer Schembri
SUBJECT: City Council Focus Area
Status Report: Increasing
Community Safety
DATE: November 24, 2025
Approved Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Accept this status report on the City’s Increasing Community Safety Focus Area implementation and progress toward building the long-term infrastructure required for learning and continuous improvement.
BACKGROUND
On September 30, 2025, the City Council approved the Focus Area Model 2.0—a framework designed to strengthen and accelerate progress on San José’s most significant, cross-cutting challenges.1 The model organizes City efforts into five Focus Areas:
1. Increasing Community Safety
2. Reducing Unsheltered Homelessness
3. Cleaning Up Our Neighborhoods
4. Growing Our Economy
5. Building More Housing
Model 2.0 represents a major shift from data reporting to a shared learning model, structured through quarterly cycles of planning, executing, reflecting, and improving.
Each Focus Area is supported by a logic model—a framework linking long-term goals to near-term actions and measurable results—and by a regular cadence of retrospective learning sessions that enable teams to adjust strategies in real time and report insights to the City Council.
1See September 30, 2025, City Council, Item 3.4, City Council Focus Areas Semi-Annual Status Report. https://sanjose.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=14796341&GUID=F10DEA6B-E69E-4648-A366- E7C99FB38D05
PSFSS COMMITTEE AGENDA: 12/4/25
ITEM: (d)2
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE
November 24, 2025
Subject: City Council Focus Area Status Report: Increasing Community Safety
ANALYSIS
Building the Infrastructure for Long-Term Impact (June–December 2025) Between July and September 2025, the Administration focused staff capacity around building logic models that would serve as the foundation for a shared long-term vision for each Focus Area. Since Council approval, the Administration has focused on establishing the people, processes, and technology that will sustain this new performance learning infrastructure.
MONTH (2025) MILESTONE PURPOSE
JULYSEPTEMBER Completion of FY 2025–2026 logic models
and retrospective training series
Conducted staff workshops and deepdive consultations Articulated Long-Term Goals, Problem
Areas, Change Initiatives, and NearTerm Goals
Established indicators and metrics to
serve as feedback loops
Initiated implementation of select
change initiatives
Established
foundations for
shared
understanding and
learning
SEPTEMBER 30 Council adoption of Model 2.0 Formalized
governance and
accountability
structure
OCTOBER–
NOVEMBER
Completion of retrospective trainings and
dashboard buildouts
Provided retrospective trainings for
execution leaders in each Focus Area;
training on performance leadership
Held first monthly retrospectives in
each Focus Area
Conducted user experience interviews
for public dashboards
Finalized data structure and collected
data sets for dashboards
Capacity building
and operational
rollout
DECEMBER Committee briefings and launch of firstiteration of dynamic public dashboardsCommunity learning
Additionally, during the initial two-month period since the City Council formally accepted the new model, teams have been learning how to apply execution-as-learning—testing small changes, documenting observations, and refining their approach. This process
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE
November 24, 2025
Subject: City Council Focus Area Status Report: Increasing Community Safety
builds the City’s internal capacity for adaptive learning while maintaining focus on results.
Through this model, City leadership is encouraging curiosity and reflection through questions such as:
What are we seeing in our metrics to date? How do we make sense of what we are seeing?
What did we observe from this past cycle? What went well? What could have gone better?
What barriers are limiting progress? What are we learning as a result? What is a main issue we should address to continue making progress? What will we adjust in the next cycle to have the most impact? Staff invite committee members to ask similar questions during these updates, as committee reports offer an opportunity to learn together about how our collective efforts are working in practice. During committee discussions, we welcome conversations about what we are learning from implementation—what the data, stories, and staff experiences suggest about the effectiveness of current interventions. These updates are not intended to modify problem areas, near-term goals, or success measures, which are established and adjusted by the full City Council through the budget process.
However, committee members are encouraged to explore how we measure success, such as opportunities to disaggregate or contextualize existing data, where available, to deepen understanding of outcomes and equity impacts.
As committee members delve deeper into the focus areas and become the subject matter experts that can inform City Council discussions, the committee conversations they facilitate can help shape how we learn and support the City Council’s broader decision-making.
Focus Area Updates
This Committee oversees the following Focus Area: Increasing Community Safety.
The September 30, 2025, City Council presentation included a full walk-through of the Increasing Community Safety Focus Area long-term goals; problems that are preventing the City from reaching its goal; the near-term goals staff committed to accomplishing to address the goals; and the change initiatives tied to those near-term goals. The Committee presentation update will include:
A brief reminder of the long-term goal and near-term fiscal year goals; A summary of progress to date, drawing from retrospective learnings; and Key lessons learned and next steps to strengthen implementation.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE
November 24, 2025
Subject: City Council Focus Area Status Report: Increasing Community Safety
A few major updates are summarized below; more learnings will be expanded upon in the staff presentation. The full set of Increasing Community Safety Focus Area Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-2026 goals is shown in Attachment A.
Problem Area 1: Emergency Response
Police Recruitment. The Police Department saw increased enrollment of women in the October 2025 police academy (SJ54), despite challenges in meeting the 40 recruit class size goal (31 recruits hired, including eight women). Lateral officer hiring increased with five total hires during the first quarter of FY 2025- 2026. The Police Department is adjusting efforts to focus on local recruitment based on lessons learned.
Police Report Transcription Pilot. The Police Department successfully completed the technology pilot to assess the impact on police officer report-writing time.
Unfortunately, the Department determined that the technology product tested was not mature enough to meet the needs of the use case. The Department believes other technology products are available that would better address the problem using combined audio and video technology and intends to explore a procurement to vet additional products.
Police Patrol Deployment. Police patrol deployment pilots show promising results from initial pilots for district-wide dispatching (response times improved by 6.8% compared to year-over-year timeframes) and for the two-person unit pilot (response times improved by 6.9% compared to year-over-year timeframes).
Next steps include a combined pilot in Western Division to continue scaling and evaluation. The Department developed an initial framework for the Custody Transport Officer position and job classification, which was approved by the City Council, and is currently accepting applications.
Fire Station 32. Inspections by PG&E are underway for the new fire station, with lessons learned applied from Fire Station 8. The fire station is on track to open by the end of June 2026, aligned with this goal.
Fire Closest Unit Dispatch. The Fire Department is testing and resolving issues related to the technology used to accurately and reliably identify the location of Fire apparatus for future implementation. These efforts include coordination with the County of Santa Clara.
Problem Area 2: Crisis Response
Note: The Administration published an information memorandum, “Update on Alternative and Co-Response to 911 Calls for Service,” in November 2025.2 This memorandum provides information on crisis response portfolio areas, like Trusted Response Urgent Support Team (TRUST) program expansion data, policy alternatives using opioid settlement funds, the status of County of Santa Clara negotiations for behavioral health professional staffing in 911 Communications, and the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team program 2 https://www.sanjoseca.gov/Home/Components/News/News/7022/5167
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE
November 24, 2025
Subject: City Council Focus Area Status Report: Increasing Community Safety
transition proposed by the County. These efforts complement the goals in this problem area.
911-988 Call Transfer Program. The Police Department conducted substantial professional development training in 911 Communications to increase staff knowledge and confidence with transfer protocols, resulting in a significant increase in transfer volumes to 988 and the TRUST. In September and October 2025, staff transferred 193 and 178 calls, respectively, to 988 and TRUST. This is an over 10 times increase compared to prior transfer volumes and surpasses the goal of 75 call transfers per month.
988 Community Education. The City Manager’s Office continued to support the County of Santa Clara’s efforts to increase awareness of services available through 988. City staff identified and shared data and potential solutions with County leadership regarding concerning disparities, where staff found that residents who identify as Vietnamese were three times less likely to be aware of services available through 988. Overall resident awareness was 28% for the first quarter of FY 2025-2026, which is just under the annual goal of 30%. First Responder Fee Program. The Fire Department completed all initial training of line personnel, including talking points for public engagement. The Department has learned that line staff will be critical for reinforcing messaging with the public and believes this will support collection rates. To support these efforts, the Department is relaunching the public Frequently Asked Questions webpage and has planned community engagement in December 2025 in advance of the program launch in January 2026.
Problem Area 3: Crime Reduction
Real Time Intelligence Center. As of November 2025, 57% of the public safety cameras (582 out of the FY 2025-2026 goal of 1,020) and 97% of automated license plate readers (474 out of the FY 2025-2026 goal of 490) have been integrated with the Real Time Intelligence Center. The Police Department began a camera core rebate program in partnership with the District Attorney’s Office to help small businesses purchase, register, and integrate camera cores. Organized Retail Theft Detail. The Detail submitted 248 retail theft cases to the District Attorney’s Office in the first quarter of FY 2025-2026, compared to an annual goal of 1,000 cases submitted. Investigations are resulting in successful filings, and case outcomes are tracked by City staff. The Detail began coordination with retail managers and loss prevention agents to streamline the reporting process.
Mission Street Recovery Station. The City is in negotiations with the County of Santa Clara regarding expanded access for referrals to the Mission Street Recovery Station. The facility remains a good option, as the process is generally faster than booking in the County jail and offers connections to behavioral health programs and services. The Department averages around 40 referrals per month, with individuals spending around six hours at the facility receiving resources. The expanded agreement is expected to increase the referral volume.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE
November 24, 2025
Subject: City Council Focus Area Status Report: Increasing Community Safety
Proposition 36. The City is now receiving regular data updates from the District Attorney’s Office regarding Proposition 36. The most recent data is shown in Table 1. For the cases where a Proposition 36 charge was any charge in a case, many of these cases would likely have been filed prior to the new law, but now with more serious charges. The District Attorney’s Office expects the number of felonies to remain steady, as any increase in Proposition 36-related felony filings has been largely offset by decreases in other areas. Data for treatmentmandated felonies has shown little impact to date, with only one person entering the treatment process; however, 18 people are currently being assessed for treatment suitability. Instead, the vast majority of defendants are opting to proceed with the standard court process rather than entering treatment. Several early hypotheses exist as to why treatment placements have seen early barriers, such as the law itself being a deterrent due to possible prison sentences if defendants relapse and a lack of treatment bed capacity. The County of Santa Clara has not received any funds from the state of California to support the implementation of the new law. City staff are working to learn more about barriers to support advocacy efforts.
San José Youth Empowerment Alliance. The Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services has partnered with Leyva Middle School as a priority school to implement a new strategy for reducing chronic absenteeism (currently reported at 21% chronic absenteeism for the 2023-2024 school year). The Department has also executed contracts with partners for the two Children and Youth Services Master Plan demonstration sites (Poco Way/Mayfair and Seven Trees/Santee) and is finalizing plans to launch in January 2026.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE
November 24, 2025
Subject: City Council Focus Area Status Report: Increasing Community Safety
Table 1. Filed Proposition 36-Related Cases as of September 2025 (Source: Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office)
Filed Prop 36 Cases Misdemeanor
Charges
Felony
Charges Total
Total Drug
Cases
Where Health and Safety
Code (H&S) 11395 was
any count in the criminal
complaint
306 588 894
Standalone
Drug
Cases
Subset of total H&S 11395
cases where H&S 11395
was the only count in the
criminal complaint
123 168 291
Total Theft
Cases
Where Penal Code (PC)
666.1 was any count in
the criminal complaint
206 691 897
Standalone
Drug
Cases
Subset of total PC 666.1
cases where PC 666.1
was the only count in the
criminal complaint
153 385 538
Problem Area 4: Traffic Safety
Traffic Safety Construction. The Department of Transportation completed 100% of planned traffic safety and pedestrian enhancement projects in the first quarter of FY 2025-2026 (21 projects total). Favorable weather conditions have allowed for high project completion rates so far this fall.
Automated Traffic Enforcement. The Department of Transportation operationalized four red light running cameras for a one-year pilot beginning on October 13, 2025, meeting the annual goal to operationalize cameras at four intersections. In the first month of operations, the cameras issued over 850 warnings, with roughly half of these warnings coming from a single intersection (3rd/Keyes). Citations will not be issued before the initial 60 days, which ends on December 12, 2025. The federal grant funds for the 33 automated speed enforcement cameras remain on hold under the impacts of the federal Administration and the government shutdown. Despite this obstacle, City staff continued vendor procurement efforts and have begun initial conversations with the selected vendor. City staff are applying lessons learned from the red light running program for the speed camera program to minimize project delays, such as permitting process opportunities.
What’s Next: Continuing to Learn and Build
The Administration views FY 2025–2026 as a pilot year for Model 2.0 that is focused on building the infrastructure, tools, and culture needed for long-term success.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE
November 24, 2025
Subject: City Council Focus Area Status Report: Increasing Community Safety
Key next steps include:
Continue iterating on functionality of public facing dashboards – improving usability and data shared for each Focus Area.
Continue sequenced implementation of near-term goals and associated change initiatives.
Refining processes and metrics through monthly retrospectives and interdepartmental coordination.
Building capacity through additional training on data literacy, goal setting, and performance leadership.
Strengthening psychological safety to ensure teams feel supported to test new approaches, identify challenges early, and learn openly.
The Administration’s learning from this foundational work will be reported on during communications to City Council in Spring 2026, which will include further updates on results-to-date across all Focus Area near-term goals. As this first year of Focus Area Model 2.0 implementation represents an important step in building the long-term infrastructure for performance, learning, and results, staff will also provide relevant implementation insights with recommendations for further improvement in the second year of execution. While this work takes time to refine, the City is already gaining valuable insight from implementation and developing the systems and culture needed for major, lasting impact.
COORDINATION
This memorandum was coordinated with the City Manager’s Budget Office and the City Attorney’s Office.
Jennifer Schembri
Deputy City Manager, City Manager’s
Office
For questions, please contact Erik Jensen, Assistant to the City Manager, City Manager’s Office, at [email protected].
ATTACHMENT
Attachment: Increasing Community Safety Focus Area FY 2025-2026 Goals