Last of three parts

Not Meeting the Challenge

Over the past decade, public safety risks have multiplied as California law-enforcement legislation has significantly changed and drugs are more dangerous and available on a vastly increased scale.

In addition, local decisions, such as the 2016 introduction of light rail into the heart of our Downtown significantly expanded access to Santa Monica for transient populations. Against this backdrop, the number of police officers has barely budged.

The year after the light rail was introduced in 2016, three new sworn police positions were added, bringing the total authorized sworn count to 224. In the last month, we arrived at 232 authorized sworn positions, only 26 more than the City had 28 years ago in 1996, in what was then a completely different public safety environment.

Given the lack of uniform, comparable crime data spanning even the past 20 years (which finally has become a city priority), only rough estimates can be made for crime direction. Using a mix of FBI and FBI-based Neighborhood Scout data for 2005 and 2022 crime totals, violent crime is up 40% while reported property crime is up almost 20%.

As Prop 47 reduced the incentive to report many crime types, the real numbers are certainly much higher. Passage of the upcoming Prop 36 would help address this issue. This overall picture indicates a chronic, multi-decade problem that has only become worse, partially due to discretionary City decisions such as insisting on the light rail extension into downtown.

Private security has been added in certain places but has a highly constrained scope of operation which includes multiple administrative layers of incident response. This structure completely dilutes its effectiveness.

The ability of the City to effectively manage these new, more complex safety issues is significantly hampered by the absence of specialized units such as plainclothes, a street interdiction team, and a fully staffed downtown unit, as was noted in an opinion piece by Mr. Cody Green.

The lack of these teams and their lack of visibility, combined with stretched detective resources, severely constrains the city’s ability, for example, to disrupt the drug supply chain and eliminate a key attraction of Santa Monica as homeless tourist destination. In this context, L.A. County’s open air park needle distribution issue in Santa Monica is simply a symptom.

While private security has been added in certain places, it is subject to a highly constrained scope of operation which includes multiple administrative layers of incident response. This structure completely dilutes its effectiveness.

In this environment, the ability to deter and prevent crime is clearly more important than after-the-fact policy effectiveness. Crime prevention in Santa Monica is hampered by the combination of an understaffed sworn police force compounded by policies that keep the police presence out of view.

The effects are most clearly seen in downtown and on the Promenade. These policies reduce the effectiveness of current and future policing resources.

The ability to prevent crime, arguably more important than solving it, is also hampered by policies seeking to keep the police presence out of view, especially on the Promenade, further reducing the effectiveness of current and future policing resources.

Finally, the huge migratory homeless demographic significantly degrades the effectiveness of the public safety personnel we do have.

Homeless activity comprised around 20% of all of SMPD’s service calls in 2021 according to the City of Santa Monica’s Homelessness Study (page 33) which was completed by the city’s Internal auditors, Moss Adams. The report indicates a comparable negative impact on our Fire Department resources.

When looking at our desolate downtown, it is arguable that these factors have created Santa Monica’s own “doom loop.”

What Should the City Do?

Obviously, these failed policies cannot be allowed to continue. former Mayor Judy Abdo’s factually incorrect and essentially disingenuous dismissal of Mr. Green’s directional analysis in her letter to the editor is a very public display of the policy problem.

Bankrupt processes that avoid objective, comparable data and transparent analyses must be completely overhauled. As every gauge of public sentiment confirms, residents and business entrepreneurs are demanding that the City immediately get serious in restoring safety in Santa Monica.

So, what should be the appropriate authorized sworn police staffing level? Given that there were 214 sworn officers in 2005, an 8% increase to 232 is simply not serious. The most often floated number publicly discussed has been around 250.

In reality, given the Santa Monica environment and the absence of influence on L.A. County policies, the real number is likely between 250 and 300, especially when all the specialized units are added back. Fully funding current safety technology could improve effectiveness and potentially reduce the size of the required increase in sworn personnel.

In all of this discussion, where is partnership with L.A. County, the entity that controls the levers to several key crime and homeless drivers in Santa Monica? The inability or unwillingness of L.A. County to partner with impacted cities like Santa Monica with simple but effective policy changes is inexplicable.

Changes as simple as enforcing fare payments could eliminate over 90% of violent crimes perpetrated on the Metro system according to statistics released by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department last week. This would obviously reduce rail-borne criminal risk to all rail destinations.

The Upside Has Several Dimensions

Of course, returning a high level of safety to this city would drastically improve the quality of life for the residents. It could even incentivize residents to spend their money in the city rather than visit surrounding areas.

It just so happens that safety and cleanliness are the essential baseline conditions required to turning around the devastated retail sector and reinvigorating the restaurant sector, along with the sales tax revenue both generate. It would also positively impact hotel occupancy by improving the city’s attractiveness to high-spending international travelers.

Finally, it would help attract new residents to the expensive new housing being created in the city, further helping the retail and hospitality sectors and, of course, City revenue.

In essence, the City needs to jump-start a virtuous cycle for all stakeholders, and get out of the doom loop its policies have created and intensified.

Editor's note: Marc L. Verville is a Sunset Park resident who is Chair of the City's Audit Subcommittee. The ideas expressed in this Opinion piece are his own.

PART I: The Problem

PART II: The Issues