{"id":25848,"date":"2024-12-11T12:08:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T20:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losgatan.com\/?p=25848"},"modified":"2024-12-11T12:09:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T20:09:31","slug":"chief-lays-out-plan-for-retooling-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losgatan.com\/chief-lays-out-plan-for-retooling-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief lays out plan for retooling department"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department Chief Jamie Field appeared before Council on Dec. 3 to go over the hundreds of pages prepared by a consultant tasked with helping the force prepare a roadmap for the years ahead, as Los Gatos expects thousands of new residents to arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top ideas included integrating the two separate police stations into a single headquarters, securing additional crimefighting and administrative software, and adding officers and civilian employees to their ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of community growth,\u201d Field said. \u201cIn developing the vision of the future from a progressive and contemporary outlook, we wanted to bring in a third-party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meliora Public Safety Consulting<\/a>, in a sole-sourced contract, developed 130 recommendations in a 322-page assessment, after reviewing department operations and conducting both internal focus groups and community outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field said the department is committed to going \u201cfrom good to great,\u201d and has already implemented several of the recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe recognize that local policing, it\u2019s very high-touch,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there\u2019s always opportunity for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chief
DECEMBER BOUQUET – Chief Jamie Field was gifted flowers from a local during public comment. (Drew Penner \/ Los Gatan)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Council members seemed quite pleased with the results of the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councilmember Rob Rennie really drilled down into the details, analyzing Meliora\u2019s approach to staffing from the lens of a former Silicon Valley engineering manager. He said he was concerned that following the company\u2019s plan might make the department too top-heavy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field said hiring another lieutenant would lift some personal or worker\u2019s compensation-type duties off of front-line personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he questioned why the company made a point of telling Los Gatos \u201cto recruit qualified diverse candidates particularly amongst women and Asian groups to better align with the community they serve,\u201d when their own report found \u201cLGMSPD has women in every rank within the department\u201d and a the percentage of Asian employees as the population of Los Gatos (8%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe always strive to recruit the most qualified,\u201d Field said, adding she\u2019d even addressed this point in her conversations with Meliora, because it stood out to her, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rennie said this led him to question whether Los Gatos was getting \u201ccookie-cutter\u201d recommendations in some parts of the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councilmember Rob Moore said he took the note about the racial and gender makeup of the department as a goal to keep in mind for the future, not necessarily a criticism of something Los Gatos isn\u2019t doing properly now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ristow said she\u2019s happy to see the department seeking to improve on what it\u2019s already doing, and copyedited Field\u2019s mantra slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to go from very good<\/em> to great,\u201d she said, adding she hopes the changes will \u201cmake this department an example for other communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vice Mayor Matthew Hudes reminded the Council he\u2019d asked for a fiscal analysis, a number of months back, that was not agreed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he was happy to see that the Town was now realizing there will be significant impacts caused by the addition of new housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field declined to estimate the number of employees the department will need in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said she believes a new facility housing all operations would result in efficiencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department Chief Jamie Field appeared before Council on Dec. 3 to go over the hundreds of pages prepared by a consultant tasked with helping the force prepare a roadmap for the years ahead, as Los Gatos expects thousands of new residents to arrive. Top ideas included integrating the two separate police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1073,"featured_media":25809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[10551,753,11958,587,11959,2514,578,840,4067],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n