Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee (psfss) - Regular Meeting

A PISFUS meeting. Before we begin, I want to remind the public safety, finance, and strategic support committee members and member of the public to follow our code of conduct at meetings. This include commenting on specific agenda item only and addressing the full body. Public speaker will not engage in a conversation with the chair, council member, or staff. All members of the public safety, finance, and strategic support committee, staff, and the public are expected to refrain from abusive language.

Repeated failure to comply with the code of conduct, which will disturb, disrupt, or impede the orderly conduct of this meeting may result in removal from the meeting. This meeting of the public safety, finance, and strategic support committee will now come to order. Can the clerk office, please call roll?

Salas? Here. Casey? Here. Mulcahy? Vice chair Kameh? Here. Chair Duan?

Here. You have

a quorum.

Do we have any public comments?

For which item? For c one.

Oh, no. Just, and and beginning to normal. Do we have any type of

We have no public comment.

Okay. We got the consent calendar. We have the third quarterly financial report for fiscal year twenty twenty four and twenty five. Do we have any motion on that?

Move that we accept the consent calendar.

Second. Alright. We've got a motion. And second, do we have any public comments?

No public comment.

Okay. Let's vote.

That motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. So now on item one, we got the fire department operation annual report. We'll have the assistant chief James Williams, deputy chief Aaron Fryler, and captain Ryan West with the presentation.

Good afternoon, chairperson Duan, committee members, and members of the public. My name is James Williams, and I serve as the assistant fire chief with the San Jose fire department. I'm joined today by deputy chief Aaron Fryler and captain Ryan West. We're here today to present the fire department annual operations report with a focus on call volume and emergency response time performance. I will now hand it over to captain Ryan West.

Thank you, chief Williams. San Jose is the thirteenth largest city in The United States, home to nearly 1,000,000 residents across 200 plus square miles. The San Jose Fire Department is dedicated to protecting life, property, and the environment through prevention, preparedness, and response. As a high volume, all hazards agency, San Jose Fire Department provides not only fire suppression and rescue services, but also an advanced life support emergency medical care and specialized responses. These specialized operations include urban search and rescue, aircraft rescue firefighting, and hazardous materials incident mitigation.

This report begins with an overview of the department's call volume then followed by analysis of emergency response times. Each section includes a review of trends, contributing factors, and updates on the response time work plan. San Jose Fire Department is one of the busiest fire departments in the nation responding to more than 110,000 service calls in fiscal year twenty twenty three, twenty four. Our protection area includes residential neighborhoods, commercial zones, the urban wildland urban interface and the San Francisco Bayfront. We also safeguard key regional assets including the San Jose Moneta International Airport, the SAP Center, PayPal Park, San Jose State University, three super regional shopping malls, seven major hospitals and 108 high rise buildings.

Over the past five fiscal years, while the city's population decreased by approximately 8%, our total call volume increased by 20%. Prior to 2019, call volume directly tracked with population growth, but this trend has changed. Like most fire departments, our highest call volume is in the core of the city represented here with battalion one in blue being our centrally located downtown fire stations. During peak call periods, resources from surrounding battalions are drawn into battalion one to assist with the emergency response. This variability in population density and service demands impacts the emergency response coverage.

It is important to note that this graph shows the number of incidents only and not the number of resources deployed to mitigate the emergency. A single incident as noted here can have several resources responding. The single incident can include multiple alarms that can involve well over 10 different companies. As such, the incident response numbers provided in this report only partially represent the workloads for each battalion. This is a heat map showing the call volume intensity ranging from the lowest in blue and the highest call volume in red.

High call volume, which is centralized in the core of San Jose, negatively impacts the department's response time performance. This is due to high call volume reducing the resources available thus increasing travel time to reach the incident from the neighboring stations. This pie chart illustrates the breakdown of approximately 110,000 incidents recorded in fiscal year twenty twenty three-twenty twenty four. Each call type was within 1% to 2% from the prior year's distribution. Not defined on this chart is the increased demand for local and state mutual aid responses.

Areas South Of San Jose include Morgan Hill and Gilroy have had an increased demand for mutual aid support. As resources availability decreased due to high call volume, it is increasingly challenging to provide backfill resources and maintain response time performance levels while providing mutual aid support. This slide compares EMS call volume to all other incident types over the past five fiscal years. EMS calls have increased by 21% while other incident types including fires have risen by nearly 23%. Notably EMS call volume remained stable in fiscal year twenty twenty three-twenty four compared to the prior year.

To reduce these EMS calls to high demand facilities, the department has been working with the County Emergency Medical Services Agency to adopt new procedures to reduce unnecessary 911 calls where non emergency interfacility ambulance services are more appropriate. In addition, the department has been engaged with the police department to modify their dispatch policy to identify if an EMS response is needed. This has resulted in eliminating eleven forty five department responses in fiscal year twenty twenty three-twenty four. This next segment will focus on the department's current response times, our performance improvement projects and strategies that are part of the response time work plan. What is a response time?

The city defines the overall response time to include three segments as highlighted section shows. This includes the alarm processing time, turnout time and travel time. Alarm processing time and turnout time each have a two minute target while travel time has a four minute target for priority one calls and a nine minute target for priority two calls. Our goal is a total response time of eight minutes for priority one emergencies traveling with lights and sirens and thirteen minutes for priority two emergencies traveling without lights and sirens at least 80% of the time. As a county contracted advanced life support provider response time performance standard for the county includes only turnout time and travel time removing the alarm processing time.

Santa Clara County EMS contract provision focuses on medical emergencies only. Our goal is to arrive on scene of a priority one emergency within eight minutes and priority two emergencies within thirteen minutes, 90% of the time. In fiscal year twenty twenty three-twenty four, San Jose Fire Department met the city's eight minute standard for priority one emergencies on an average of 64% of the time shown in blue. We met the county standard 87% of the time shown in orange. The department's agreement with the county includes exemptions for response time performance requirements.

After this fiscal year's readjustment compliance rate, San Jose Fire Department met the county's response time performance for 11 out of the twelve months. Travel time continues to be the biggest challenge to our on time response performance. Factors like the distance being traveled, units out of service, traffic congestion, ambulance shortages and high call volume each play a role in late responses. Effort to decrease the distance between fire stations and to increase resourcing, the city is continuing to advance new fire station building projects enabled by Measure T such as the new Fire Station 32 set to open in twenty twenty six six and Fire Station 36 set to open in twenty twenty seven-twenty eight. On 03/20/2025 the department presented findings on EMS activity and delivery regarding impacts to response times and operations.

The department identified key factors that had a direct correlation with increased late responses. This included the unavailability of ambulances, the increased use of San Jose Fire Department rescue medics transport and the fire department providing paramedic escorts for ambulances not staffed with paramedics. This heat map shows the geographical distribution of late responses with a travel time greater than four minutes. Red zones indicate the greatest number of late responses while green areas show the lowest number of late responses. Although fire stations are closer together in the core of the city, the higher number of incidents result in increased number of late responses as previously explained.

Leveraging funding for Measure T Bond has enabled construction of the new Fire Station thirty two and Fire Station thirty six as well as the relocation of Fire Station eight and Fire Station twenty three. Measure T also provided funding for the improvement of the nine eleven call centers capacity and improving integration of modern technologies to meet volume demands and support emergency 911 features. Here is a list of key strategies in process that are focused towards improving travel time. Resourcing projects included deployment refinements with real time move ups and backfill for training, fire communication staffing improvements and dropping borders. Technology projects include CAD to CAD dispatching links, closest unit dispatching and increasing navigational technology.

We will continue to use analytics to include new data collected to help direct the department's focus on decreasing overall response times. That concludes the San Jose Fire Department's annual operations report. We are happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for the report. We're gonna go to council member Kameh.

Thank you so much, and thank you for all the work that you do to keep us safe. I, I know that, we're, ending our contract with the county and renewing or doing whatever. I was wondering, you know, when you look at on the information sheet here on page 14, the city standard and the county standards are different. And so I was just wondering, are we looking to renew or to change them or to because it wasn't clear to me as to when there's an exceptions, and I know they have exceptions to the rule, how that all gets, done.

Council member Kamai, thank you for your question. Currently, we are in discussions with the county about contract that will need to be potentially renegotiated at some point. In those negotiations or discussions I should say we are looking at the standards that have been established to determine if there is a need for any modifications or changes but again it's in the early stages and so we're still working through the process.

Do you think that it would conclude before the June thirtieth? Because I know that that's when it ends. I was just curious as to does it look good, does it do you need help or how's it going?

Well again, we're engaging them and in terms of the time and the process, there are provisions for potential extensions in the contract. So at this point we're working through to find out if we can come to a particular determination if not the potential exists for extension.

Yeah. Well thank you so much. I just wanna express sort of the impacts to the department, impacts to the work that we do, and sometimes, you know, the other party who's supposed to be doing their ambulance work does not do what they're supposed to do or has less individuals who are trained. So I I I know that that causes impact to department and so I am con I am concerned about that. And I just wanted to let you know that, you know, this is a good time to think about what are some of the things that would be helpful to be able to have a contract with the county that is a little bit more equitable.

So thank you. And thank you for your work.

Thank you council member Kameh. We're gonna go to council member Salas.

Yeah. Thank you so much for your work. And I wanna mention, you know, all the folks who work with you in fire, they've had such a big impact on my kids and now my grandkid. They are so kind at the fire stations, and thank you for that too. I know that's a very secondary impact, but it makes a big impression, thank you. The one slide you showed that the population had been going down and the calls are kind of going up, I'm almost trying to figure out the secondary effects of our homeless situation. Do you think a lot of that, suspect, or do you have metrics that suggest that a lot of that is because of the homeless crisis we're in?

Council Member Solis. In that particular case, we do capture data in a dashboard that looks at our responses for the unsheltered population. There could be several drivers of the increase in response times from aging population to, programs that are no longer available to the community where they're accessing healthcare using nine eleven in many cases. And so there are a lot of variables that go into that particular increase and we are starting to look at that more in-depth in terms of what those causes might be. But at this point they are variable.

Okay. Thank you. And then I noticed in the pie chart, medical only was sixty two percent. Do you have to take do you always have to take a fire engine too when you go on those medical calls or is it just an emergency vehicle?

We need to always be prepared to respond whenever we go out. So typically, the medical calls will receive a fire engine along with four personnel, with one of those personnel being a paramedic with ALS capabilities or advanced life support capabilities. Capabilities. And we do that because again if another call comes in after that call or while we're out, we need to have that big red toolbox, right, that fire engine with us so that we have the right resources responding to different types of emergencies throughout the community.

Okay. Thank you. And then lastly, one of your slides said the thirteenth largest city in the nation. As of yesterday, we became the twelfth largest city in the nation, just for the record. And thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, council member Salas.

First of

all, I wanna say thank you for your service. You know, I you know, I've been with the fire department for a while and and I served the community and also being served, unfortunately, when my mother passed. And and we we as as the department have gone always gone above and beyond, you know, what is asked of us. And a lot of our community member don't realize that we don't just work in the fire department. It is, it is a lifestyle.

It is something that we have passion in doing. And we don't just serve the fire department, we we do enormous amount of program including the Byrne Foundation, working with the, you know, disabled children to give them opportunity to go out there. And we always involve our self in community one way or another. And and I just wanna just say thank you and and continue on the good work. But I do have a few question.

I would like you to explain to our counselor and our public a little bit more the reason why when we have going to a a medical call. It could be a bravo, is a very simple, not, you know, somewhat of an emergency. Or it could turn into an, you know, an echo call. And so our personnel respond in four Because a lot of time it's all hands on deck in order to support our resident at the worst time of their lives. That's including sometime just moving a patient that weighs five hundred pounds.

And you know, and I would say an average American adult now, male adult, is about almost two hundred pound plus. So, and not only on a flat surface, but on many difficult surface including stairs and narrows and so on. Can you explain a little bit? So that way our citizen and our council member here would would understand why do we need four.

Thank you for your question councilmember Duan. So, when we look at the the fire service, going back to the efficiency of crews, especially in metropolitan cities with older, stock, Victorian homes, things like that, that can get quick headway with fires. There were studies done actually in the 70s with the Dallas studies that showed the efficiency of three versus four. And so we have that efficiency here in an older city, older community, which gives us more punch, if you will, more resources on the scene in terms of of people to deploy hose lines, to address fires, to address the pit crew concept if we have a full arrest or CPR in effect. And so having that crew ensures that we have the resources that we need to get good initial fire attack started in the event of a fire as well as to support rescue operations as well as, again, I talked about the pit crew concept for a person in cardiac arrest, that's pulse was not breathing.

Thank you, assistant chief. So I'll go a little bit further. For example, when you've gone to a a resident who having a heart attack, the captain go on scene, he is out there looking for the safety of the crew, the safety of the residents, gathering information. The medic is is assessing the patient. Our firefighter is either doing compression and another one doing ventilation.

In the meantime, sometime after they get an information, the captain even put down his iPad and start opening up the needed equipment from the non rebreather to understanding what the the medics need anticipating, you know, from tubing the the patient and and the medication. So so pretty much when we go on scene, is all hands on deck. And and it and from a simple call like a kid fall down, you still have to have all these equipment coming in. You still gotta be able to assess the patient for minor. And that patient can go from minor to emergency in a heartbeat.

Thank you for that answer. Within the last decade we experienced almost 40% increase in the comp volume. So what strategy, you know, considered to manage the growth and ensure that we continue to be timely response for our residents?

Thank you for that question. We have been quite, things have been positive with the support of the city council and the funding, that has come to the fire department for technology that helps us to process calls quicker, to answer the call quicker in terms of fire stations through measure t with the advent of Station 32, the relocation of Station 8, the future firehouse at Station 36. And so those resources that have come through the investment of the city council have certainly assisted the fire department along with the technological advances. We talked in the report about the cat to cat interface with, the two dispatch centers, Santa Clara County and San Jose Fire, which will create some efficiencies in terms of sharing information back and forth. Also efficiencies associated with closest unit dispatch, which is AVL GPS, automatic vehicle location, global positioning system.

And the, outcomes for that we hope to be, the ability to get the closest unit to the scene of emergency to cut down on response times thereby providing service quicker to community that we serve.

Thank you for that answer. I understand all those technology would would improve. But the bottom line is if we don't reduce the geographical of each station first due, then we're kinda still fighting the timeline traveling from one end to the other. For example, if you're if you're at Station 14 and you're on one end, we can't respond to a call and and you're done with that call. In order to respond from that call to the other end of Station 14, the travel time could be even just without emergency, with the emergency even for that matter, is eight to ten minutes because the the geographical area is is quite large.

And I believe that our geographical area is approximately six square miles per station. Am I correct?

I don't have to research that further, but I I do recall hearing that, that at one point.

Yes. And and so I'm I'm glad that we have Measure t that we we opened up, you know, Station 33, which is unoccupied at this point. Hopefully, we'll get that back online. And then, Station 37 And 32, and looking forward to 36. But somewhere down the line because eventually we'll get back to the top tenth largest city in the nation.

As our population, you know, rise, I believe that we need more station in order to appropriately respond to support our our residents. For example, in in I believe that the last data I looked at, Santa Clara City, is 10 square miles. And they have 10 stations. You know, we're not asking for that much. We're asking just to be able to reduce our geographical first due probably down to, instead of six square miles, down to four miles.

I think that would be someday, that would be the goal. Here's a couple other question. The report mentioned exploring opportunity to triage service call to optimize life saving intervention. What specific triage protocol are being considered and how are they being implemented?

Currently, utilize the medical priority dispatch system, which is, essentially the national de facto standard that many departments across the nation use, to help determine the level of call, type of resourcing that should be associated with the call. We continue to look at the refinements that, that particular company, implements through, new releases of the product. We also use fire priority dispatching and, again, a national de facto standard for, triaging, fire calls. And and so that with those tools, we're able to make decisions about resourcing levels, in terms of of the type of response.

Thank you. What type of, key performance indicator, do you use, in the fire department to make us more effective? And and how are these metric being measured and influencing the decision making and resource allocation?

So when we look at performance measures, obviously, we want to perform, based on the level of the investment, from, the city. And so with that, we use metrics such as holding a fire to the room of origin, the building of origin, the particular property of origin. And so we started to look at that with fires. We started to look at the response time, right, how quickly we can get on the scene. The idea is to get to the fire as quickly as possible. And so when you look at the time temperature curve and the arrival of the fire department, many times that fires in the free burning state. And so our goal is to hold it to the room of origin whenever possible.

Thank you. I know that our fire department went to approximately 11,000 calls regarding unsheltered residents. How does that affect our residents when when your 11,000 calls, meaning about 10% of your calls are going to our unsheltered. Does that affect our performance when we need to respond to other calls?

I think when we look at the totality of a 110,000 calls and the and the response system that we have, we provide that same high level of service to the entire community. And so, with that, if there is a company that's out, on a call that's associated with an unsheltered, individual, it's pretty similar to the idea of an EMS call or a call in any other place of the city. What happens is that we backfill that particular unit or that particular response area or emergency service zone with another resource. So when we look at how the system is built, the system is built to work within the totality of a 110,000 calls in the backup systems as well. And so with that, there certainly is an impact just like we talked about the increase in call volume but the reduction in the the number of residents, which is typically a a driver of response.

The system that is established to provide service is such that no matter that call volume, we're able to send a resource to the scene to start to affect hopefully a positive outcome for those that we serve.

Thank you. As our population rises and there there's a lot more mental illness. Is the department plan to implement some type of training in order to have our firefighter to be aware that when our patients are mental illness or or disabled, if you will?

We certainly look at opportunities to provide the community with the highest level of service. And when we do that, there has been some discussion through our training division about us perhaps offering a segment as part of some of the EMS training that occurs. Certainly, are resources available to us such as the MCAT. And oftentimes, when our personnel recognize, particular situations, they're able to, make referrals or notify, other resources that best serve, our communities that may be challenged with particular, behavioral health issues or other situations.

Last question. We have the same staffing numbers since I believe the nineties. We've grown. The department hasn't really truly grown with the population that we have. And with the amount of volume of calls that we have. In the future, do you have a clear implementation plan to grow the department in personnel, and including, station as well?

At this point, we have the strategic plan that went to the council in 2016. We have gone past that five year period at this point. So we'll continue to look at, opportunities of how we may develop, and enhance the strategic plan to further do that. Certainly, the basis for the growth that we're experiencing now with Station 32, Station 36, and some of the other capital projects was born through that process. And so we continue to research and look at what potential opportunities may exist as so that when things potentially are able to do something different, certainly we'll start to look at how we can explore doing that.

Yes. Thank you. I I'm aware that we're we're past that strategic plan by two years. And we're looking to update and revise for the future, you know, of the department?

When we have the opportunity to do that, we will try to work through that process. Of course, we'll have to look at the opportunities for resources to help us, fill that space at some point.

Thank you so much. I need a motion from

No. It's the information.

Oh, the information only? Okay. Well, thank you so much. We

don't need the motion for the assessment.

No. Okay. Thank you very much. Now when you go to item number two, is calendar year February 09/11 disability.

I'm sorry, council member Dewan. I'm sorry. You you do need a motion to accept the report. The recommendation is to accept the report.

Okay. Can I get a motion, please?

I would so move. Second.

Alright. We've got motion and second. Let's vote. Okay. We're going to the police department 911 disability and homeless call analysis status report. We have deputy chief Gina and lieutenant Paul Hamblin and communication manager Jennifer Hearns. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm deputy chief Gina Tivaldi, the executive officer for the San Jose Police Department. With me today is lieutenant Paul Hamblin from research and development and Jennifer Hearn, our communications manager. Today, I will present the police department's disability and homelessness call analysis report for calendar year 2024. This report stems from a February 2024 council report on alternate response models.

In the meeting, city council members asked for an analysis on how San Jose PD flags events and calls related to homelessness and persons with disabilities. As part of the report, I'll provide a brief overview on how the department collects this data, provide information on the department's relevant training programs, and present several key data points related to disabilities and homelessness for calendar year 2024. Am I clicking? The department primarily collects data on disabilities and homelessness through its computer aided dispatch or CAD, which is a software system used by the department to manage and coordinate dispatching, resource allocation, and communication with field personnel. In April 2022, the department added the field's unhoused related and perceived disability to CAD's clearance mask.

This means that every time a patrol unit clears an assigned event, a proactive event, or a citizen flag down event, the officer must input data into both of these fields. The unhoused related drop down requires a yes or a no, while the perceived disability drop down menu requires the officer to choose either no disability or any of the eight listed disabilities. This slide demonstrates the nine options available on the perceived disability drop down menu. These nine options have been selected as they mirror the California Department of Justice's racial and identity profiling act data collection selections. The officers have the option of other disability for any disability they observe that's not on the list or multiple disabilities if they observe more than one simultaneously.

It should be pointed out that this data as well as homelessness data is based primarily on officers' perceptions, which can be based on personal observations or statements made by parties involved with the event. The San Jose police officers receive extensive training on how to recognize disabilities beginning at the academy where they receive a sixteen hour block of instruction on serving individuals with disabilities. All officers are also required to attend a forty hour critical incident training course concentrated on how to recognize and provide services to individuals with disabilities including mental illness. Officers receive periodic refresher training on disabilities through annual continuous professional training courses. Officer learn to input the data into CAD during the academy as well as in the field training program usually on their first day since they aren't able to clear a call and go to the next call without entering it.

Now for a sampling of some of the data we collected during calendar year 2024. We will start with unhoused related. There were 357,375 total cat events in 2024 and of those 19,830 or five and a half percent were marked as unhoused related. The event types most commonly marked as unhoused related were disturbances, community policing, foot patrol events, welfare checks, trespassing, and suspicious person calls. Looking at these events by council district, we see that District 3 had the most with 5,158 followed by District 6 with four thousand ninety one.

District 8 had the fewest with five hundred and ninety three. Finally, turning to events involving perceived disabilities, there were a total of nine thousand eight hundred and eleven disability related events or point zero three percent of all cat events. In this slide, we have broken them down into specific disability as well as by whether or not the event was unhoused related. Eight thousand three hundred and five of the 9,811 events or 85 were identified as involving a perceived disability being mental health. This percentage could rise to as high as eighty seven percent if we take into consideration events with the multiple disability options selected.

Of those eight thousand three hundred and five mental health events, three thousand seven hundred and eighty one or forty five percent involved one or more unhoused individual. When we look at the total number of perceived disability events, the nine thousand eight and eleven number, we see forty four, ninety one or forty five percent involved unhoused individuals. So that concludes concludes my presentation today, and we will accept any questions.

Thank you for the presentation. Do we have any public comment?

No public comment.

Okay. We're gonna go to oh, let me double check here. Give me a second.

We're gonna go to council member Kameh.

Thank you, and thank you for the report. I was curious when we're looking at these numbers, are they individual incidents? I mean, you you don't, you don't track repeat, or do you track repeat, persons who frequent? I was just wondering what the number. Correct.

So anytime an officer is assigned to the event, they clear the call with these two masks. So if we have a two person unit assigned to the event, they clear as one one data entry. If we have three or four officers at an event, each officer has to clear both masks. And then when we count the one event, if anyone has checked yes to unhoused or has marked one of the perceived disabilities, then it receives a tally. So it is based upon calls they're dispatched to, flag downs, and sorry, and self initiated activity. So each one is an event.

Okay. And and but you don't track if the same individual I'm just wondering if because I thought I guess it surprised me that only five percent were homeless. Right? But I but I was wondering if if it's an individual who is a frequent caller. Right? So that you may have like ten, twelve whatever incidents so that it adds up to 12, but it's still the same one person and I just was wondering do you differentiate?

Thank you for the question. Council member, yes it's based on event. So one person could have two or three events a day that's not even that uncommon and that would be three separate events.

Yeah. Is there a way that because I think that some sometimes, the information is is valuable in terms of of how do we, address, the frequent callers versus someone who, you know, does not. And so I kind of was wondering has there ever been any time in which you have taken a look at that to see you know what can be done?

Thank you for the question. The closest we've come to that is what we started about a year ago which was called frequent utilizers and this was anybody that has been contacted by the police a certain number of times, but it only it was a very small percentage. It was I think at some given time I think it was Tara help me I think it was about 40 different individuals and we were just tracking them. Okay. This is a little different because that had more to do with law enforcement, with the justice system as far as being repeat offenders.

Data has to do with people who are not offenders, they're not necessarily, I mean it's both. It's people who have committed a violation of the law and it's also people who have just called the police because they're having a problem.

I see, I see. Okay. Well thank you so much for your report, and and and really thank you for your work.

Thank you, council member Camay. We're gonna

go to council member Salas.

Yeah. And thank you for what you do so much. You just every day, I just thank the Lord for the San Jose PD. Every day. A couple of questions. I'm asking as a committee member and council person, but it's based on my lived experience here, particularly for the last ten years of fifteen now that the homeless issues have been so significant. I was surprised 5.5% is homeless, is that is that really true? I would, based on my experience, would expect it's more like 20 or 25%. It's really only 5%

In calendar year 2024 that was the statistic. We have an unhoused dashboard that our crime analysis unit is releasing next week. It'll be on sanjosepd.org and the great thing about that is you can go on and you can look by either police division or even council district, and you can click on it and see what percentage of the CAD calls are. And we were looking at it just before and for the last couple months it's it was 7%, so it fluctuates, and again this is perceived by the officers at the time of the call.

Okay. And then my experience in calling the police with the unhoused situation that I've had so many times, it's not until most of we usually how do I say it? We've usually accept the unhoused and the situations there, and except when they're really drug crazed, and there's no drop down on drugs here. It seems to be disabilities but not drug related. I would expect a lot of them are drug related. Can you comment on that?

Well, it's potential that some of them are drug induced. It could be potential that someone has a mental illness and maybe they're self medicating with narcotics. So, I mean, it's a possibility. We don't have a specific drop down for drug intoxication, but you know it's possible the officers check that other disability box maybe if it's an addiction.

Okay. Listen, thanks again for all you do. Thanks for this report. It's fascinating and what you've done with the menu is really interesting I'm looking forward to seeing the dashboard. Thank you.

You're gonna love the dashboards. Our crime analysis unit did a great job with it.

Well, thank you. Thank you, council member Gonzalez. Just piggyback on on his question. Can we add on the drug addiction or at least a little icon at the bottom? So that way, you know, we can satisfy not only council member Salas. Trust me, majority of us wanna know, right, how many amount of calls is involving drugs in our unsheltered resident as well.

Thanks for the question, Chair. The menu is mirrors that of RIPA, which is the national racial profiling data that we collect separately, but we've added it here as kind of a fail safe to give us that data for everything because RIPA only entails people who have been detained. So we wanted to add that same data. We wanted to gather that same data for all calls, for all events. That being said, it is my understanding that we can add to that list and that's something that we will definitely research.

Thank you. And on Page seven, mental illness both not unhoused and unhoused, totaled to eight thousand three hundred and five calls. That's that's that's kinda alarming in a sense. And how does TRUST or even nine eight eight or PERT program can assist with that amount of calls?

Well, MCAT, we obviously have two teams, one on each side of the week, and we have one per team. So we are limited in our response of those units. All of our officers do receive the training we talked about, the CPT training, the forty hour CIT training, and ideally can deal with mental illness when they contact persons in the field. So we're all trained to do it. We just have some specialty units that have more training.

Also, I don't know if you wanna talk about 988, but, you know, we do our dispatchers do triage and try to pass off calls to 988 that we feel are appropriate, and the trust team responds out. And I know the chief on Monday had stated that of the calls that trust responds out to, they pass 15% back to San Jose PD because once they get out there, they realize it's not a trust issue. It's more of a PD type issue. So it's a work in progress. It's fluid. We do our best from call taker perspective, from police officer perspective, etcetera, to kinda triage and provide the appropriate resources. Resources.

So my understanding, the the department is losing the PERT program?

That hasn't been officially confirmed, I don't believe, but, it was on the table with the county. So, you know, we're we're kinda waiting for word.

Now if if if you do lose it, how does that affect your department in response to mental illness?

Well, it is a great resource. It's one officer and one clinician, you know, and they go call to call throughout the day. Those calls will have to be absorbed by MCAT and by patrol officers. Officers. We obviously want every tool and resource we can to best address the issues we face, but, you know, we we continue onward. Even if we lose a resource, we we absorb it and we deal with it, and we do our best to deal with it.

Thank you. I know that our the world we're living in right now, there's a lot of unhappy residents whom constantly saying that, you know, we should do this, we should do that. And I know that out of 526, changes that was was on, requested from the council. The department implemented, like, 365 of them and continue to do so. I just wanna encourage and empower and inspire the police department to continue to do the great work that you guys are doing and not let all the rhetoric and to to bring what we call I I believe we're probably the best department in the nation for the amount of resource that we have.

And, I thank you very much and continue with the good work. And do do we have a motion on the floor?

Move to accept the report.

Second.

Thank you. Let's vote.

That motion passes unanimously.

Okay. We're open forum. Any public speaker? No public comment. Perfect. Meeting adjourned. I can do the gavel.