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OUR APPROACH
We invite our community to judge us by what we do, what we say, and how well we do both.
Prevention and Community Policing
We are proud to be at the forefront of modern policing, which focuses not just on law enforcement, but on avoiding the need for law enforcement.
For us, that includes community-oriented policing, legitimacy and procedural justice, and our work with the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace, all of which (and more) we describe on this page.
- | Our Approach
Our Approach
We are proud to be at the forefront of modern policing, which focuses not just on law enforcement, but on avoiding the need for law enforcement.
For us, that includes community-oriented policing, Legitimacy and Procedural Justice, and our work with the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace, all of which we describe in the sections below.
Community-Oriented Policing: the “PIER” Strategy
In partnership with the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace (CASP), the City of Salinas is recognized nationally as a leader in reducing crime by making enforcement part of a bigger, more integrated strategy of Prevention, Intervention, Enforcement and Re-entry services (PIER). This approach is based on the understanding that “you can’t arrest your way out of the problem,” but must also address the sources of violence, such as poverty, lack of opportunity, or the pain and anger that can result from a history of racial or ethnic disparities.
Prevention means working with families to help young children get a healthy, happy start in life. This is by far one of the most effective ways to make sure they never get in trouble as teenagers or adults.
Intervention means reaching young people who might be drawn towards a violent lifestyle, and offering them better alternatives, like counseling, mentoring, after school programs, recreation centers, sports or job training.
Enforcement is what we do when we have to — protect people from those who have become a threat. Here, we focus on using data to target enforcement on the most dangerous people. We no longer do broad-based “sweeps,” which can undermine trust when people have unnecessary encounters with the police — and we don’t go after people because of their immigration status.
Re-entry services are provided to people who are returning to society from prison. Instead of just being dumped back into their old neighborhood with few options, the goal is to help them make a fresh start.
By following this integrated strategy, other cities have shown that violence can be reduced significantly. For example, San Jose went from being one of the most dangerous big cities in America to one of the safest.
By demonstrating both the seriousness of its gang violence problem and the credibility of its response, Salinas was invited to be one of the founding members of President Obama’s National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention. In 2012, former Chief Kelly McMillin was recognized by the White House as a Champion of Change for his work to prevent youth violence through community-oriented policing, and the Department received the James Q. Wilson Award for Excellence in Community Policing in 2019.
An important part of community-oriented policing is recruiting officers who reflect the community they protect. We actively seek recruits from Salinas and the surrounding area and encourage those with skills in the languages and cultures that make up our community.
Legitimacy and Procedural Justice
We were the first police department in California to train all our sworn officers in Legitimacy and Procedural Justice (LPJ), a model developed at Yale Law School which holds that true authority comes not from the use or fear of force but from the trust of the community. That trust is often lacking in minority communities, many of which have long histories of experiencing excessive or unfair policing — the civil rights struggles of the 60’s and 70’s were not that long ago, and while our country has made a lot of progress since then, those struggles are not over.
LPJ is based on four principles:
- Giving others a Voice (Listening)
- Neutrality in decision making
- Respectful treatment
- Trustworthiness.
As described in a KSBW-TV story, LPJ “recognizes that people want to feel heard, feel respected and want to know their police are neutral and trustworthy.” When people feel that way, they’re more likely to comply with the law, because they believe it’s being fairly applied. Much of LPJ amounts to taking the time to listen, and to explain. The difference it makes can be dramatic.