What Makes a City Safe?

By Roger Winslow, Vice President
Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of Santa Clara County 

 Sir Robert Peel established England’s first police force in 1829. It was the birth of modern law enforcement. He is the reason that London officers are nicknamed “Bobbies.” 




His famous statement is: “The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.” 


He believed that an effective authority figure understands and believes that trust and accountability are of utmost importance. 


I first heard these words in my police academy class more than 17 years ago. His belief of where the authority of an effective police force comes from is no less true today than it was in 1829.  

Without the cooperation and approval of the public at large, our core mission of public safety and crime reduction cannot be successful. Effective law enforcement professionals know that trust and accountability are crucial. 

In my years of policing, I’ve worked in neighborhoods of both high and low socioeconomic statuses, in areas that were saturated with crime, and in areas where the greatest problem is speeding cars. 

Why are cities like Saratoga, Cupertino, and Los Altos Hills considered “safe” and enjoy a relatively low crime rate? 


The one thing that always sticks out in neighborhoods considered “safe” is the willingness of residents to call the police.  

People who live in safe neighborhoods talk to their neighbors. They observe what is normal and what is out of place, and they recognize that problems for their neighbor may mean problems for themselves in the future. But most of all, they call when they notice something just isn’t right. 

The vast majority of we solve are the ones the public tells us about and then follows up with more information. The mission of public safety would be impossible without the public’s help and participation. 

Residents of safe neighborhoods call their local police and report what they see. They don’t assume someone else will do it. They call because they both care about their community, and they believe the police will be able to help. Safe communities have police officers available to respond to calls for service. 

Therein lies the successful partnership; the people trust the police, and there are sufficient police resources to take action when called upon. This is a significant reason places like Saratoga, Cupertino, and Los Altos Hills are “safe” cities; the partnership is healthy. 

Society is poorly served when either side of the equation is unbalanced. No calls from the public means police won’t know about a problem until it’s too late. No police response reinforces the belief that the police can do nothing for them. 

Public participation is the reason that deputies have a higher rate than most in identifying and arresting people burglarizing homes. Rarely do we stumble upon these types of crimes on our own. 

Take Cupertino as an example: with a population of over 58,000 and more than 20,000 homes spread over 11.25 square miles, the odds of a Deputy seeing a burglary in progress are incredibly low. 

In fact, the attention and concern by a local restaurant employee in Cupertino just last month resulted in the arrest of man wanted on domestic violence charges and car jacking. This observant employee likely prevented another domestic violence incident or worse. 

If you live in any of the areas currently served by the Sheriff’s Office, keep up the good work and thank you for the calls! 

If you live in a city not patrolled by the Sheriff’s Office, please consider this. You ultimately decide what is important and what should or should not be done in your community. You decide what you report to the police. You decide by telling the police where they can do a better job.


The police show you they understand by enforcing the law equally, limited by the resources given to them, earning the public’s trust, and being held accountable when wrong. 
These are the principles we stress to the members of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Santa Clara County. 

We aren’t perfect and though we’d like to be everywhere at once, we can’t. In the spirit of Sir Robert Peel, we ask for your trust, knowing it’s predicated for using it to serve the good of the people. 

“Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches people by example. If the government becomes the law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law and invites every man to become a law unto himself.”— Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1856-1941)

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