Enhancing Community Linkages:
Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety
By
The Police Executive Research Forum

INTRODUCTION

The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a Washington DC based non-profit police research and consulting group, was hired by the City of Sunnyvale to review the relationship between the community and the police function of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. Although the Department of Public Safety includes both police and fire operations, PERF’s study covered only the police operations of the department. The study was composed of two phases. First, PERF staff conducted interviews with persons in the department and in city government to gain their perspectives on the department’s relationship with the community. During the second phase, PERF staff facilitated a series of community focus groups to gather community opinions and expectations regarding the Department of Public Safety’s police function. This report covers not only these two areas but also discusses findings from the city’s annual community surveys. Finally, a series of recommendations are offered for how the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety police function might further enhance its relationship with its community.

Sunnyvale is a full service city located in "The Heart of Silicon Valley," just north of San Jose’ and 45 miles south of San Francisco. It has an ethnically diverse population of approximately 132,000 and is approximately 46% Caucasian, 32% Asian, 16% Hispanic, and 2% African American.

There is a widespread consensus within the department and within city government that the police operations of the Department of Public Safety are carried out in a high quality, very professional manner. The crime rate in Sunnyvale is low. Department sources indicated that its crime rate is 65% below the national rate, 67% below the California rate, and 50% percent below the Santa Clara County rate. During FY 2002/2003, crime was at the lowest rate since the Department of Public Safety began maintaining rates in 1975. There are few complaints filed against officers. And, city and police interviewees cited the high level of satisfaction expressed by the citizens in the annual community surveys conducted for the city by the Gelford Group.

City and department interviewees are aware that the city is becoming even more diverse. As Sunnyvale residents increasingly come from different cultures and speak different languages, city government and police leaders see a need to enhance their efforts to build trust and linkages to Sunnyvale’s ethnic communities. Interviewees expressed a general feeling that such trust and linkages are needed to keep the police and the city responsive to residents’ needs. More specifically, they expressed a concern that if a particularly serious and complex crime involved some of the city’s ethnic communities the police might not have sufficient connections to be able to locate, and communicate effectively with, witnesses and others that might be able to furnish leads to help solve the crime. Those interviewed felt that the police needed to find additional means to communicate and build trust with the diverse groups that make up Sunnyvale.

Police and city interviewees think part of the difficulty in creating and maintaining involvement with ethnic minorities is similar to the problem of working with other residents. Because of its prime Silicon Valley location, Sunnyvale has many residents working in high tech businesses. Often both spouses work, and because of the recent high tech slowdown, many work long hours and travel long distances throughout the region to work. Sunnyvale, because of its central location and because of its perceived safety, is viewed as a very desirable place to live but its residents have little time not consumed by work or family to devote to interaction with the police or other government staff.

Consequently, interviewees said, many Sunnyvale residents limit their interactions with the police to those instances when they have immediate need of police service and when they call for assistance. Contact outside of these citizen-initiated encounters is a low priority for most residents. Such contact may be limited even further by language and cultural barriers for ethnic minority residents.

Therefore, most of those having contact with Sunnyvale police officers will have contact with those who respond to calls for service, patrol officers reacting to the call. The Department of Public Safety describes the role of it patrol officers as follows:

Specialist officers—Neighborhood Resource Officers and crime prevention unit staff—conduct proactive community contact and outreach. For example, the department describes the role of its neighborhood resource officers as:

Staff assigned to the Crime Prevention Unit, according to the department, work "to provide a proactive means to prevent crime and present structured training to the community."

The department’s community policing specialists, those in crime prevention and working as neighborhood resource officers, therefore are those primarily tasked with working to overcome the barriers presented by residents with little time, who see non-urgent interaction with the police as a low priority, and who often are from different cultures with a primary language other than English.

These difficulties may be exacerbated further by demographics. Only about 25% of Sunnyvale’s homes have school age children, and these students are spread among several different school districts. As a consequence, the school is less of a central point of contact as in many jurisdictions. It can be utilized as a vehicle for community-police interaction for only a minority of Sunnyvale’s residents. In other jurisdictions, police agencies often can reach a majority of their residents through the schools and parent-teacher organizations.

Training: The department’s website states that it provides 96 hours of in-service training per year per officer. This substantially exceeds the California Police Officers Standards and Training Commission’s required 40 hours every two years. A review of the department’s training records from 1998 through 2002 shows that in 1998 116 sworn employees attended nine hour training sessions on "Diversity / Harassment", two sworn and 15 non-sworn employees attended a four hour training session on "Sexual Harassment", and 182 sworn and 59 non-sworn employees attended three hour sessions titled "Cross Cultural Communications Workshop."

Diversity and cross cultural training in 1999 was limited to two sworn employees attending a 32 hour course "Women in Fire Service." In 2000 one sworn employee attended a 16 hour training session on "Sexual Harassment / Hostile Work Environment." And, in 2001, two non-sworn employees attended a 16 hour session on "Women in Policing." Training records show that in 2002 70 sworn employees were trained on "Policy Against Harassment and EEOC."

Policy: Over the last several years many police departments have put into place specific policies against racially biased policing. These policies have often been implemented even in departments without identified biased policing problems as a way to reinforce the department’s commitment to its community that it will treat all fairly and equitably. These policies have often been accompanied by systems to monitor police-citizen encounters to ensure that bias is not occurring. San Diego, San Jose’, and Sacramento are among larger California police agencies that have implemented specific policies and monitoring systems. Although, Sunnyvale does not have a specific policy on racially biased policing the Department General Orders Manual addresses professional conduct and responsibilities of officers as it pertains to impartial attitudes towards all persons coming to the attention of the Department.

The department does want to improve its relations with its residents. A number of anecdotes were cited to demonstrate that its employees are willing to go above and beyond expectations. One episode cited was when an officer saw an older women walking who stumbled and spilled the contents of the grocery bags she was carrying. The officer not only stopped to help her pick up her purchases but then drove her home to make sure she got there safely. In another episode, an officer responding to a call from a residence took the time to explain why he could not remove his shoes before he entered the dwelling, as was the cultural custom.

The city annually surveys the community. As described above the results indicate that residents are overwhelmingly satisfied with city services. In September 2002, the city reported the results of the June 2002 Resident Satisfaction Survey. Of those surveyed 99% reported that, overall, they felt safe or fairly safe in Sunnyvale. In 2001 97% reported feeling safe or fairly safe, as did 94% in 2000. This level of general resident security is extraordinarily high.

However, when asked more specifically about locations, time, and feeling of safety some disparities appear. Although 100% of those survey felt safe downtown during the day, the percent dropped to 84% reporting feeling safe after dark. The difference was even greater in the city’s parks with 99% feeling safe during the day but with a drop off to 67% reporting feeling safe after dark.

Crime was assessed as "not a problem at all" or "not too serious a problem" by 91% of the survey respondents. 92% responded with a rating of "very confident" or "somewhat confident" when asked how confident they were that Sunnyvale’s law enforcement programs keep them safe. Again, these ratings are very high.

Breaking down the overall rating by district (Sunnyvale is divided into six districts) does reveal some differences by where survey respondents live as shown in the table below.

It would seem that some residents distinguish between their feeling of safety and their confidence in the city law enforcement programs as a producer of their safe environment.

Another question sought ratings on police protection. Overall 93% rated police protection favorably. But, District 2 residents rated this lower than average at an 83% favorable rating.

Sunnyvale is very diverse with residents of Hispanic, Black/African American, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, and Chinese ethnic identity. As with residents from different areas of the city there were variations in survey responses according to ethnicity. In some cases, specific ethnic groups responded in numbers large enough to form a significant sub-group. In other cases, ethnic minorities had to be summarized as "Other."

• Spanish/Hispanic/Latino and Chinese residents generally feel less safe than average.
• Spanish/Hispanic/Latino residents (-12%) and Other residents (-15%) feel notably less confident than the average resident that Sunnyvale’s law enforcement programs keep them safe.
• Residents who identified as Other feel generally less safe than the average in their neighborhoods during the day and notably less safe in their neighborhood after dark (-12%).
• Spanish/Hispanic/Latino residents feel generally less safe in their neighborhoods after dark.
• Chinese residents feel generally less safe in Sunnyvale’s parks after dark.
• Although 91% of all survey respondents did not see crime as a problem in their neighborhood, only 84% of Chinese respondents answered in a similar way.

Although the rating given by minority residents of Sunnyvale’s safety and law enforcement programs are still high, some segments of the city’s minority residents assess safety and law enforcement efficacy lower than the citywide averages on each dimension. It is these differences, perhaps, that give rise to the sense of disquiet expressed by several interviewees that the Sunnyvale’s police operation needs to improve its relationship with what, by any scale, is an overwhelmingly satisfied community.

Community focus groups were held in Sunnyvale from December 13 - 15, 2002, in an effort to elicit the ideas and perspectives on policing and public safety of a diverse sample of Sunnyvale citizens. Assembling the focus groups is illustrative of the problems involved in getting residents more involved with the city’s police agency. Repeated attempts by city and public safety staff

to set up focus groups to discuss Sunnyvale police were met with responses of "don’t have time" and "not interested in participating." Eventually, the city used a contract marketing firm to put together suitable groups.

While no formal process was used to establish whether the groups constituted reasonably accurate proportions and representations of the various ethnic groups comprising the population of the city, the groups appeared to be composed of a broad representation of ethnic and social classes. Additionally, group participants represented the majority of the city’s neighborhoods.

Participants were encouraged to relate their experiences with the police in Sunnyvale along the following several major themes. They were asked about their perspectives on crime and public safety and the quality of services offered by the police. They were queried about their own knowledge of the extent of community outreach currently performed by police and about their perspectives on the nature of their community and the impact of those characteristics on the overall sense of safety and security in their community. Lastly, they were asked about their willingness to become more involved in police and community programs. Each focus groups session ran over a two-hour period. Actual participation ranged from ten to as low as two participants, in addition to the facilitator. The Police Executive Research Forum provided facilitation for the focus groups.

The issues raised during the focus group meetings fell under four broad categories: Community Perspectives; Perspectives on Policing in the Community; Police Visibility; and Outreach Mechanisms. The issues raised during the meetings are summarized under each category.

1. Community Perspectives

One theme that surfaced in the course of discussions was consistently supported in each group: the citizens of Sunnyvale tend to be very busy people who typically work and engage in leisure activities outside of the boundaries of the city. They have little time to devote to community programs or activities. Most of the participants are employed in technology-related fields. Recent downturns in the technology industry have resulted is greatly lessened job security. As a result, many Sunnyvale residents are compelled to spend an extraordinary number of hours at work, and less time is spent in the home on weekdays. In their overall daily time budget, most working residents have abandoned any thoughts of involvement in community affairs since a focus on family takes the bulk of the remaining non-work time.

Consequently, many focus group participants displayed a reluctance to become involved in community affairs or with enhanced police/community programs. They expressed little desire to be involved other than through reading material that keeps them up to date on events and community initiatives. An example cited by several participants was the recent city annual survey. Some participants indicated that they did not have any interest in completing the survey but acquiesced once they received follow-up calls and letters from the City.

Many participants indicated that most of the recreational events they attend during weekends are outside the city. Typically they only attend special community events in Sunnyvale like the summertime Art and Wine Festival. With the proximity to larger shopping and recreational centers, focus group participants indicated that they shop and socialize largely outside of the city.

Focus group participants perceive that most ethnic groups are not well organized inside of Sunnyvale. Some, they said, like those from South East Asia, tend to worship in the larger centers like San Jose. Even more prominent ethnic groups, such as those of Mexican heritage, tend to organize along regional lines. The local Mexican-American Club is composed of residents from Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Santa Clara, and they do not meet in Sunnyvale. Consequently, such organizations are not expected to promote a sense of community that conforms to a single city’s boundaries.

Residents were aware that some Sunnyvale neighborhoods are organized around local area groups called, Neighborhood Associations. However, few participants were active in, or knew much about, their neighborhood association. Most advised they were too busy with the demands of work and family to have any significant time for involvement. Others could not say whether they had an active neighborhood association. Some participants said they welcomed reading any informative pamphlets or newsletters authored by their neighborhood association since, in many cases, that would be their only reasonable means to keep informed.

Focus group members were aware that, in the past, neighborhood associations organized Neighborhood Watch programs with police officers attending the meetings to explain the Neighborhood Watch program. They remember that officers also offered advice on personal and home protection. In many instances, the residents took the time to attend the meetings. Their participation was generally limited to the part of the program where they marked their valuables with equipment provided through Neighborhood Watch. Once their property was marked, however, many participants in the focus groups advised that they did not follow through with continued activities and meetings within the structure of the Neighborhood Watch program.

In terms of broader community support and activities, participants advised they saw little need to engage in programs offered by the City or programs introduced by the police. While they indicated that they welcomed reading material published by the City such as the "Quarterly Report," there was no general desire to get any more involved apart from being suitably informed. Reasons for non-involvement not only included the previously stated time constraints but also include the perception that the city is considered one of the safest communities in the country. With no pressing need to organize to address serious crime issues, some focus group participants indicated that a sense of complacency prevails within the community because of a general feeling that there was no need to expend any additional effort if crime is already low.

Participants explained this pervading sense of complacency by highlighting the extent of community participation in the "S.N.A.P." program, a crisis prevention and preparedness program for use during an earthquake or other major emergencies. The program, while relevant and important to residents of the area, drew an initial strong level of interest. The level of interest quickly diminished because community members did not feel another devastating earthquake was imminent. Most focus group participants agreed that a program’s momentum withers relatively quickly in Sunnyvale, as they felt had occurred with S.N.A.P., notwithstanding its importance. Thus, they feel the same way with police programs relating to community safety. If there is no crime to be concerned about, there is, in their minds, no need to enhance community participation.

Specific crime issues will pique community interest and in some cases could generate some commitment from people who would normally not get involved, although the level and sustainability of commitment seems to have limitations. The Washington area sniper case was discussed as a mechanism to identify what levels of crime would mobilize the community into active participation. Many recognized the sniper event as a unique and extreme situation, but given the possibility it could have happened in any community, the focus group participants acknowledged they would pay more attention to police activities during the time period such an episode was active. They would attend meetings to discuss their personal safety. The focus group participants cautioned, however, that community interest would wane once the threat had passed. Even an extreme event, they felt, would not result in more sustained community involvement with the police.

During the focus group sessions, participants were provided with background on the Citizen Police Academy concept. All agreed that the concept had merit, would likely be beneficial and would improve understanding of public safety issues in the community. Those that held full-time employment argued that few could ever attend or take full part in the program because of work and family commitments. A predominant view in the sessions was that participation in the Citizen Police Academy is best left to the retired population with more "free" time. Simply being kept informed of police activities would be sufficient for many of the focus group participants.

2. Perspectives on Policing in the Community

The residents that took part in the focus group universally acknowledged that they expect and receive very good service from the police department. Calls for service are answered promptly and many examples were given where the police response to apparently minor complaints was within 10 minutes. The residents involved in the focus groups advised that they have become accustomed to a quick response by police. In terms of follow-up work, the police in Sunnyvale are generally recognized to be diligent in their work, often going the extra mile in following up on burglary and other property crime offenses. Residents indicated that they often hear of, and appreciate knowing that, Sunnyvale police officers will commit to a longer investigative effort in addressing even minor crimes.

They also note that the mixture of services through the public safety approach in Sunnyvale means that fire and police officers are generally cross-trained. This cross-training is viewed by members of the focus groups as enhanced service to the community. In all, there was no indication of any desire by the community members participating in the focus group sessions to reorganize the Public Safety Department into separate fire and police organizations.

Residents do not dread seeing a police car in their rearview mirror as some related they felt when living in other cities in California, other parts of the United States, or abroad. The focus group participants felt that the police stopped cars on reasonable grounds and did not sense there were any issues with respect to racial profiling. Similarly, those participants with teenage children that drive in and about the city note that their children have not complained of being targeted or singled out by police because of their age or sex.

Group members acknowledge that Sunnyvale is a safe city, but attribute that sense of safety more to the demographics of the area than to activities of the police. Although the police are seen as responsive to requests for service, focus group members generally lacked knowledge of the proactive crime prevention programs instituted by the police. When asked to give estimates of the proportions of the impact of police on low crime rates versus the impact of demographics, participants overwhelmingly attributed the largest impact to demographics.

The focus group participants noted a relatively quiet night life—the absence of night clubs and crowd-drawing events—as one major factor behind low crime rates. A second factor listed was the high cost of housing and the exclusionary effect housing costs have on the types of people that live in the city. The groups harbored a general feeling that low income housing would attract people that are more inclined toward criminal behaviors. The absence of this type of housing, they thought, helped keep crime rates low.

Police officers in Sunnyvale are generally seen by the citizens to be friendly and receptive. Two participants advised they have encountered some Sunnyvale police officers that seem "smug and aloof." Many residents thought this could be addressed through more foot patrols. They view police patrols in cars as a barrier to informal communication between police officers and citizens. If the officers were out of their cars more, the residents concluded, they would be more open and engaging with the public.

3. Police Visibility

Focus group participants indicated that the police tend to be less visible than they would like. The Lakewood area was cited as an area where police activity was limited to only calls for service response. Participants viewed Lakewood as a problem area within the city and, as a result, expect to see police more. But residents feel that police are present only when there is a problem. They do not see the police in the area in a casual setting, where the engagement between police and the citizens is more informal.

The focus group participants indicated they understood that the police needed to patrol in their cars. But their opinion was that they should spend more time in the neighborhoods they patrol by taking their breaks and meals in those areas. In areas where crime is seen to be low, the groups generally agreed that the police are rarely seen. In all of the focus groups, the general feeling was that police are visible only when dealing with criminal activity, not under more casual circumstances.

Even during scheduled events in the city center, like the annual Art and Wine Festival, according to the focus groups, police presence is minimal. Fire fighters are more visible, focus group participants thought. Many thought this might be because of the large equipment display the fire department puts out at each festival. The participants indicated that police cars are seen at the entrance to the festival area, and some indicated that police have a booth inside the festival area. In all of the focus groups, participants could not tell the facilitator what the police offered from the booth. Most said they walked past the booth without stopping. One person indicated s/he thought the police handed out cards that had officers’ pictures - often referred to as, Cop Cards. No one in the focus groups visited the police booth to learn more on crime prevention, nor did they think to check the booth to see if there was any material on programs the police offered.

One focus group suggested the police should be more active in attracting people to visit their booth. Police should do as the fire department does by having a dynamic display with interesting pieces of equipment or vehicles.

4. Outreach Mechanisms

The focus groups indicated that they see very little of their police department in the local media. The major newspaper in the area is the San Jose Mercury, which serves a large number of communities in the region. The city of Sunnyvale may be profiled only weekly in the San Jose Mercury, and often the profile is not focused on the police. Events in Sunnyvale are not covered in any great detail in the Mercury.

The Sunnyvale newspaper, the Sunnyvale Sun, is published weekly. One problem some of the residents noted about the Sun was that it is not widely distributed. One section in the Sun deals specifically with police issues, called the Police Blotter. Some group participants advised that the Police Blotter appears sporadically and is not a weekly feature. All participants agreed that the police needed to make a stronger effort in regularly publicizing their programs and activities in the Sunnyvale Sun.

Focus group participants generally agree that the police in Sunnyvale are not well known. The facilitator described the Neighborhood Resource Officer program and the work the officers in that program are doing in the schools. Many of the participants, some of whom are parents with children in schools visited by police, were not aware of the program. One suggestion was that the police advertise their efforts more regularly through the Sunnyvale Sun by highlighting a program or officer and the positive benefits to the community from the program or the particular officer’s work. The focus group participants suggested enhancing the Police Blotter section in the Sun to accommodate a broader perspective on policing in Sunnyvale.

Another suggestion emerging from the focus groups was that the police explore the possibility of copying the format and style of the Waste Management Division newsletter. They indicated that the Waste Management flyer, which is delivered along with the city’s Quarterly Report, is consistently effective in transmitting issues and new information related to waste management. The group thought that if less interesting matters like waste management can be effectively advertised, an effective and clear review of interesting police issues and programs distributed in a similar manner would make sense.

Increased outreach through the faith community was not seen as an especially effective strategy. The role of the faith community was generally seen as limited to offering their facilities for large meetings between police and the community if there was a need. The larger churches could be used for larger audiences in the event the police needed to get a message out to large numbers in a compressed time frame, participants thought.

Many residents said they visit the local library on Saturdays. Several participants indicated that the library is a community center of sorts to many people every weekend. They thought the police should consider positioning a booth in the library on weekends for outreach and sharing of crime prevention information. It was suggested that police could host a series of rotating lectures at the library on Saturdays. The lectures could be focused on crime prevention, advertising police programs, or on matters of topical interest relating to public safety during these rotating meetings.

Several thought that the police in Sunnyvale could exploit the city of Sunnyvale web site more to enhance outreach. Most of the focus group participants visit the Sunnyvale city website on a regular basis. Participants noted that the police have a poor showing on the city website. They advised that if the police are having difficulty in advertising their efforts or in generating public interest in their work, they should consider a more aggressive approach through the city website.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Sunnyvale’s safety and security are already well regarded by the residents of the city. The overall survey response marks on feelings of safety (99%), the low severity of crime as a problem (91%), confidence that the city’s law enforcement programs keep them safe (92%), and favorable ratings on police protection (93%) would be envied by most American cities. Therefore additional efforts to increase trust and interaction between the police and Sunnyvale’s communities are likely to produce only marginal benefits. The city’s enhancement efforts should focus on those particular communities where they feel they have the lowest levels of trust and interaction. PERF offers the following recommendations that may help generate some improvements in community-police interaction and trust.

1. The department should reexamine the role of its patrol officers since most of the interactions Sunnyvale residents have with the police stem from calls for service. The department should consider adding to the responsibilities of patrol officers to "establish a bridge of trust and understanding with the residents within their designated areas." This activity might take the form of spending more time with residents during each encounter to gain an understanding of cultural differences, providing crime prevention brochures in the resident’s preferred language, or scheduling a follow up visit from Neighborhood Resource Officers or Crime Prevention specialists. Patrol officers should also spend more time on foot and bicycle patrol. They should also attend neighborhood meeting in their assigned areas.

   Sunnyvale has higher levels of police patrol staffing than comparable cities because patrol officers also fight fires. Patrol staffing is designed to be sufficient to allow response to fire scenes and to still have adequate personnel to respond to police calls. Some of this increased staffing level is consumed by having patrol officers perform follow up investigations but indications are that time is available to increase the time spent on calls without interfering with investigative activities.

2. The police should make much greater use of the Department of Public Safety’s web site as a way to provide information to the community. Currently the Public
   Safety website has five options:

• Police Services
• Fire Services
• Emergency Preparedness
• Crime Prevention
• Public Safety Recruiting

3. The department should consider creating an on-line Citizens Police Academy. Focus group participants gave high marks to the Citizens Police Academy concept but said they wouldn’t have the time to attend sessions presented in a traditional format. The department could create a secure website and create a variety of inter-active modules that participants could go through on their own time schedule. Some modules could be video demonstrations. A testing protocol could be established so that participants could check to see if they had learned a module’s essential points. Web conferences, with either web cams or text based live question and answer sessions, could be part of the course. By creating courses in several different languages, some of the barriers between some of Sunnyvale’s ethnic communities and the police could be overcome.

   If internal resources are not available, the department should enlist volunteer help or support from a local technical school or college.

4. The department should create its own newsletter and issue it with the city’s Quarterly Report. The newsletter could include crime and call response statistics, but should also include stories featuring Sunnyvale officers. Crime prevention tips and notices of upcoming meetings and events could be included. Volunteers could help with this effort.
5. The department should investigate developing programming, in multiple languages, for the community access stations on local television cable systems. Programs on how the department is organized and on crime prevention tips could be developed. Program times, channels, and content could be publicized in the newsletter described above.
6. The department should try to expand its presence in local print media. Both the Police Blotter and a feature article should appear in the weekly local paper. If there is an unwillingness to print the feature article as a news article, the department should investigate the possibility of purchasing space as an advertiser. The features could include information on crime prevention, or requests for information needed to help solve ongoing investigations, or profiles of departmental employees. Departments that have used employee profiles strike a balance between letting the public know about the off-duty interests of employees yet still taking care to guard the employee’s privacy.

   As part of its enhanced approach to using print media, the department should determine what non-English newspapers are read by Sunnyvale residents. Some of these may be published regionally. Regional publications should be approached about including, from time to time, some information about the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and its police operations. Feature articles may take a different slant for these papers, helping to explain how American police procedures differ from those of the country of origin of the readers. For example, for cultures where anyone entering the dwelling removes their shoes before entering, a story could explain why the police don’t do this.

7. If, as suggested by the focus groups, the library is popular with community members on weekends, the department should use both displays and short talks to help keep the community informed. This venue might represent a good opportunity for the department to promote more widespread knowledge about its impact on crime and its crime prevention programs. The department should consider setting up its recruitment display as another way to inform the community about the messages it sends to potential recruits about working for the Department of Public Safety.
8. The department should upgrade the police booth at the annual Art and Wine Festival. It should display a patrol car and demonstrate the various types of mobile information available to officers. It should consider demonstrations of its firearms training system, and might consider allowing some of the public to experience F.A.T.S. training themselves. Careful consideration should be given to both selecting participants and the scenarios used. One type of controlled demonstration might involve selection of local officials and people widely known in the community prior to the event. A schedule could then be publicized to simulate interest.
9. The Sunnyvale DPS should seek to incorporate mandatory diversity and cross cultural training in its in-service curriculum every year. All departmental employees, both sworn and non-sworn, should be required to attend. Presentations by community members who represent different cultures could be one form such training might take. Successful diversity training for police officers in other jurisdictions has focused on how understanding elements of other cultures can enhance officer safety, decrease misunderstandings and help to further policing goals.
10. The department should implement a specific policy on racially biased policing. In 2001 the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services published "Racially Biased Policing: A Principled Response." This work proposed a model policy on racially biased policing that was designed to: Emphasize that arrests, traffic stops, investigative detentions, searches, and property seizures must be based on reasonable suspicion or probable cause;

• Restrict officers’ ability to use race/ethnicity in establishing reasonable suspicion or probable cause to those situations in which trustworthy, locally relevant information links a person or persons of a specific race/ethnicity to a particular unlawful incident(s);
• Apply the restrictions above to requests for consent searches and even those "nonconsensual encounters" that do not amount to legal detentions;
• Articulate that the use of race and ethnicity must be in accordance with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; and
• Include provisions related to officer behavior during encounters that can serve to prevent perceptions of racially biased policing.

MODEL POLICY

11. The department should consider implementing a monitoring system for vehicle and pedestrian stops. Many departments have complimented implementation of racially biased policing policies with systems to measure compliance with these new policies. This usually involves capturing officer’s perceptions of the ethnicity and sex of those who are stopped and then examining the resulting data to determine whether there are disproportionate stops occurring. The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, published in 2002 a guide to developing such systems: "How to Correctly Collect and Analyze Racial Profiling Data: Your Reputation Depends On It!"

12. The department should consider creating a multi-cultural police advisory committee to meet quarterly with the Director of Public Safety. The purpose of this group would be to provide input to the department about any problems that might arise between Sunnyvale’s diverse communities and the police. Such a forum could not only enhance trust and communication between the police and Sunnyvale’s residents but also among the different cultures that make up the city.