> if SJ is so underfunded and police overworked, how it manages to be a comparatively safer city than other comparable metro areas? My personal theory is that

> if SJ is so underfunded and police overworked, how it manages to be a comparatively safer city than other comparable metro areas? My personal theory is that crime has little to do with policing and mostly related to how people feel in a society and whether they can meet their economic needs. Throwing money at police departments improves neither unless the department focuses on those ends. SJPD’s use of Community Service Officers takes low urgency work away from sworn officers for less than half of the cost of a sworn officer and requires fewer trigger-happy people to interact with the community. The numbers I mention are sworn officers, excluding CSOs, so I suspect that augmented force helps each dollar go further.