#policing-costs

#policing-costs

In an alarming change that could force Cupertino, Saratoga and Los Altos Hills to slash millions of dollars from their budgets or raise local taxes, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office is revamping a long-standing contract that provides those cities with public safety services. The new contract could potentially raise police costs for those jurisdictions by about a third through 2027. While the cities assert the contract changes came as a surprise with limited transparency, the county argues that policing has become far more expensive and that these municipalities must now pay for the true cost of the services.

We accept that this is all part of policing in a capital city, but it does present unique cost and resourcing pressures for the Met. All the officers you see out on these busy protest and event days have other core roles and while we have done a lot to limit the number of officers pulled away from frontline duties, it is inevitable that there will still be an impact on other policing priorities.