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yp:• 1 6 MEMORANDUM To: Mayor and City Council Date: August 30, 2016 , From: David Cavazos, City Manage Subject: Follow -up to August 161h Council Meeting This memorandum is a follow -up to the August 16 85A and the related discussion on crime statistics, hiring, budget and patrol staffing. Before providing information on our progress and successes in the area of improved public safety, it is important to thank our dedicated public safety professionals and City leadership, including our current and former Police Chiefs. We express our special gratitude to our Police Department for their service to the Santa Ana community. I would also like to thank the Police Officers Association past President Franks and current President Serrano for their continued commitment to making Santa Ana one of the safest communities in the country. Santa Ana is commonly ranked among America's safest large cities by various publications (e.g. Forbes Magazine ranked Santa Ana 4`h safest city 20091, ADT Security Company ranked 5`h safest city 20142, WorldAtlas ranked 11th safest city 20163, and Niche ranked Santa Ana in the Top 50 safest US cities 2016°). The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Uniform Crime Rate (UCR) is the basis of evaluation for these rankings. Safety always comes first and is a major reason that Santa Ana has made outstanding progress in the following categories: improved property values, increased sales tax revenue, increased business licenses, 20% General Fund reserve levels, and higher employment rates for our residents. Again, this would not have been possible without the commitment of the City toward public safety. We know that when deciding where to live, shop and invest, safety is a top priority and that is why over 335,000 residents and over 29,000 businesses choose Santa Anas. I would like to commend Police Chief Carlos Rojas for his exceptional leadership as Police Chief since 2013 and his long- standing commitment to Santa Ana starting as a Police Officer since 1990. We are making progress, which is why Santa Ana has the lowest three -year average crime rates than in the previous 30 years (see chart below) as substantiated by the UCR report by the FBI6. The FBI has been standardizing, collecting, and validating crime statistics since 1930 to provide normalized data across all local, tribal, state, and federal agencies'. The FBI collects the number of Part I offenses (murder and non - negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny -theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson) from law enforcement agencies. This information is then analyzed for arithmetical accuracy and for deviations in data entry. Santa Ana is categorized as a Group I City, which includes all cities with a population of more than 250,000. It is important to emphasize that any shooting related to a Part I offenses, as reported to the FBI, are captured in the UCR Crime Index. Exhibit 1 19J-3