Public Safety
Vision
True public safety is the essential foundation of a thriving city. It is built daily through intentional design, proactive intervention, and clear standards that prevent harm before it happens. My vision is a Sacramento where safety is designed into every block from well-lit streets designed to save lives, to policies that compassionately address homelessness with accountability, to a layered security strategy that ensures our police can focus on protecting our community from serious crime. Safety is the bedrock of opportunity, and every resident deserves to feel secure in their neighborhood.
Policy
- Design Safer Streets: Prioritize road repairs to include integrated safety features such as clear striping, high-visibility crosswalks, and traffic-calming design to prevent accidents and protect all users.
- Illuminate Public Spaces: Systematically upgrade lighting in parks, trails, and commercial corridors to increase visibility, deter illegal activity, and restore community confidence after dark.
- Implement a Realistic Homelessness Strategy: Enact a three-tier framework that provides rapid housing for those ready to accept it, treatment and rehabilitation for those who need it, and mandated care for the severely ill who cannot help themselves, ending the cycle of street suffering.
- Deploy Layered Security: Strategically use licensed public safety officers and private security in business districts to address quality-of-life crimes, freeing sworn police to focus on violent and serious offenses.
Why This Matters
For too long, “public safety” has been narrowly equated with the number of police officers. While a fully staffed department is essential, safety is fundamentally shaped long before a 911 call is made. A dark, poorly marked street is a public safety failure. A sidewalk obstructed by an untreated mental health crisis is a public safety failure. A business district where vandalism and petty crime go unchallenged is a public safety failure.
Our current approach often asks police to solve problems they are not designed to fix, stretching them thin and deepening community frustration. We must be smarter. By designing roads that naturally reduce speeds, we prevent tragedies. By lighting our public spaces, we reclaim them for everyone. By honestly differentiating between those who need a hand up and those who need professional intervention, we can address homelessness with both compassion and accountability.
Finally, using a mix of trained security personnel for visibility and deterrence in commercial areas is a practical force multiplier. It protects small businesses, improves the environment for residents and visitors, and allows our sworn officers to concentrate on the complex, high-risk work that truly requires their expertise.
This comprehensive strategy moves us from merely responding to crime to systematically preventing it. It makes every city dollar and every city worker part of the safety solution, creating a Sacramento where people feel secure because the environment itself is designed for security.