Successful Practices & Strategies Vol. 3 | No. 9

Vallejo Police Department 

Vallejo, California 

http://www.ci.vallejo.ca.us/city_hall/departments___divisions/police 

Community policing element 

Community partnerships, problem solving, and 

organizational transformation 

Problem/issue 

Violent crime and a critical staffing shortage 

Problem description 

After emerging from bankruptcy, the City of Vallejo was eager to get back to providing proper levels of 

service to the community members of Vallejo and to stimulating economic activity and growth. Of 

paramount concern was the safety and security of Vallejo’s community members. Violent crime 

continued to stand in the way of progress and a healthy business environment. In 2012, the police 

department identified the reduction of crime and the fear of crime as a top priority. 

After declaring bankruptcy in 2008 and with declining sworn staffing, the department began to 

reorganize by collapsing divisions and pulling officers back from special assignments. The staffing 

situation deteriorated by the day with reorganization occurring on a regular basis. The community 

policing and youth services programs were among the first to go. Everything in the department was cut 

to essential operations only. By 2012, the department had a small patrol division, five detectives, a 

professional standards division, and command staff. 

Community policing strategies implemented 

Despite its limited resources, the department was on a mission to rebuild, reconnect, and look for ways 

to say yes to the community. The chief realized that in order to reduce crime and the fear of crime, the 

department had to do two things in short order: reconnect with the community and increase the 

critically low staffing levels. In order to reduce crime and the fear of crime, the department had to come 

up with creative ideas to get the job done. The department had become very efficient at providing 

police services to 118,000 residents in 53 square miles with only 77 officers. However, while being very 

efficient, the department still needed to strengthen its ties to the community. 

The department established the Community Services Section (CSS) and hired a local community 

organizer to run the program. CSS connected with all of the neighborhood watch groups and then began 

teaching other neighborhoods how to organize their groups. In addition to managing the police 
department’s presence on Nextdoor.com, CSS also began attending community meetings with patrol 

officers and command staff. There are now over 200 neighborhood watch groups in the City of Vallejo. 

At the same time, the City of Vallejo established the Neighborhood Law Program (NLP). Two NLP 

attorneys are assigned to handle issues that impact quality of life for residents such as squatters, blight, 

and nuisance properties. The NLP attorneys have been successful in handling a variety of issues by 

communicating directly with banks and other property owners to abate issues. CSS works with NLP to 

identify and follow up on problem properties and areas. 

In 2013, staff implemented a directed patrol operation in hot spot areas called Operation Safe-net. 

Operation Safe-net was designed to be flexible, visible, and responsive. The operation was scheduled to 

run eight days a month, and the days were randomly selected. With limited staffing in patrol, we had to 

fill open patrol spots first. On some days there were only four officers working Safe-net, and on some 

days there were as many as 15. We maintained flexibility by designing the directed patrols on how many 

officers we were able to sign up for the day. We maintained visibility by keeping Safe-net officers in 

black and white patrol cars and in full uniform. In this way, Safe-net was better able to infiltrate problem 

areas, because criminals were used to seeing busy patrol officers simply drive by on their way to calls. By 

the time Safe-net came into a hot spot area, there was no time for the criminal element to react or 

vacate the area. In addition, with a large contingent of Safe-net officers on the street, patrol officers 

were able to capture more suspects with tighter perimeters and more officers immediately available to 

respond to in-progress crimes. 

Operation Safe-net is extremely responsive. With information from CSS, Neighborhood Watch groups, 

crime stats, and direct input from community members to the Safe-net commander, Safe-net is able 

to quickly converge into areas where robberies, shootings, and gang activity are trending. Community 

members are able to see their police department doing more than just answering calls for service and 

the efforts are well received by the public. 

Our goal with Safe-net was to address gun and gang violence at the street level. Our Safe-net efforts 

disrupted the activities that led to shootings, robberies, and theft. In years past, our crime suppression 

teams had been focused on drug activity with a great deal of time spent on surveillance. Operation Safenet sought to make it very difficult for criminals to conduct their operations on street corners by 

changing the immediate environment that had created the conditions which led to violence. 
Change and/or impact as a result of these community policing efforts 

From its founding in January 2014 through November 14, 2014, here are the statistics for Operation 

Safe-net: 

• 1,807 traffic citations (the majority of which were moving violations)

• 2,121 field interviews

• 465 arrests

• 351 vehicle impounds

• 31 arrests for possession of firearms

Operation Safe-net has been a successful operation. As of November 2014, we were on track for a 20

percent reduction in Part 1 crimes by the end of the year. With Operation Safe-net in full swing, we 

continued to listen to community groups who asked for the return of bicycle patrols at the downtown 

farmer’s market. The bike patrols, operating as part of Safe-net, have been very popular with business 

owners and residents alike. In fact, the longtime owner of a downtown coffee shop said, “Bringing back 

the bike patrols was one of the best things the city had ever done for the downtown merchants.”

According to our citizens, there is a palpable feeling of positive change on the street. We believe the 

community will benefit greatly from our partnerships and Operation Safe-net efforts. 

Lessons learned through program implementation 

The Vallejo Police Department has learned many lessons operating with critically low staffing. As we 

continue to rebuild, we are now more responsive to the needs of our community. We are also 

enmeshed into the very fabric of our community like never before. 

We learned that we could be successful in our crime fighting efforts despite what appeared to be 

insurmountable obstacles. We also learned that Operation Safe-net was a huge morale builder for our 

officers. Our officers want to be impactful and make a difference in our community. With a high call 

volume and low staffing, prior to Operation Safe-net, officers were simply responding to one call after 

another. Safe-net gave officers the opportunity to provide a greater level of service to the community 

and allowed them to be proactive again. 

The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the 

U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an 

endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement 

discussion of the issues. 

The Internet references cited in this document were valid as of the date of publication. Given that URLs and websites are in 

constant flux, neither the author(s) nor the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services can vouch for their current validity. 

Published 2016