CC 02-02-70 adjourned
CITY OF CUPERTINO, State of California
10300 Torre Avenue, Cupertino, California
Phone: 252-4505
CC-35
MINUTES OF THE ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE
HELD FEBRUARY ¿, 1970 IN THE LIBRARY OF THE
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA
CITY COUNCIL
CITY HALL
The meeting was called to order by Mayor Dempster at 7:00 P.M. in the
Library of the City Hall.
Councilmen present: Beaven, Fitzgerald, Dempster, Stokes (7:11 P.M.);
Absent: Councilman Noel. Also present: City Manager Storm; City Clerk-
Finance Director Ryder; Director of Public Works Yarborough.
The Mayor requested that Mr. Earl Lewis proceed with his discussion on
the question of whether or not Cupertino should have its own police
facility.
Mr. Lewis prefaced his remarks by glvlng what his understanding was on
the question which was whether or not Cupertino would have its own
force and, if so, how soon was it to be implemented. He said that be-
fore these questions could be answered the Council would have to give
him some indication as to what kind of budget the City would have for
its force, what level of effectiveness and type of service would be
expected and how much support would the Council and the City be will-
ing to give as to the size and cost of such a service. He said the
answers to these questions would determine the scope of the study and
the apprDach to be taken.
presentation
He offered that basically there were three different approaches police
departments took. One of these was the legalistic approach used by
Los Angeles and Oakland where the function of the policeman was limit-
ed to situations where ordinances and other laws were violated. An-
other of these approaches was the watchman function used in San
Francisco and Boston which gave considerable discretion to the indivi-
dual policeman as to whether or not to invoke some action. The third
of these approaches is the service function which also is used in San
Francisco and this relates to the type of work that is normally thought
of as being performed by private patrol companies, ambulance companies,
and the giving of various types of aid and assistance to the citizen
in general.
Mr. Lewis then expanded all those functions which could be included
in other than the legalistic approach. He named these as being crime
prevention, the traffic function, providing escort for transportation
of money, the private commercial patrol services and checking of re-
sidences during absences of owners and the enforcement of City ordi-
nances relating to zoning, parking, health and welfare, etc. He com-
mented that most of these watchmen or service functions cannot be
measured and, therefore, the effectiveness of anyone particular pro-
gram cannot be determined. It was his belief that the démonstratiòn
of efficiency is not necessarily effectiveness.
page 2
Minutes of the adjourned City Council February 2, 1970
CC-35
There then followed a series of questions and answers between the members
of the Council and Mr. Lewis relating to the general points of Mr. Lewis'
presentation.
Councilman Beaven inquired if the type of service given was directly re- general
lated to the size of a city and the reply was that the size is not neces- discussion
sarily a factor.
Mayor Dempster stated that he favored the legalistic approach as beini the
only realistic one as others lend themselves to too much misinformation
and misinterpretation as to who and what a police function is.
Councilman Fitzgerald wondered if there were any comparisons available of
other cities who have gone to their own forces and also thought that most
of these cities use the legalistic approach with some emphasis on service.
Mr. Lewis contended that the City must' be. realistic and study the impli-
cations and the various alternatives. He cited that the City cost now
is $750.00 per injury accident. It was brought out that property damage
investigations is not always reported but this, when done, averages about
two man hours for each such investigation and report. He said the in-
vestigation of property damage could become quite burdensome and a de-
termination must be made on which and to what extent such will be done.
In answer to Councilman Beaven's question it was stated that statistics
are not yet available on the increase of robbery or burglary in this
area but that State and National figures could be used. This, however,
would tend to think in terms of a model police department and if this
was what was wanted it would take away some of the personal element and
relationships between the Council and the police department. Mr. Lewis
said that Santa Clara County has lower robbery and burglary ratios then
either the State or the NationaL
On the question of drugs Mr. Lewis said that the Council would have to
set a limit on discretionary areas because such laws the police invoke
are either State or National and not local. There are State and Federal
agencies to deal with this problem. He said there is a tendency to
measure the work of an agency by the number of arrests. He thought,
however, that effectiveness could be had without arrests and gave as an
example going to the source of drug sales and stopping that rather than
the complete alienation of youth by arresting them in large numbers.
He said that in some areas such as traffic there can be a reduction in
the number of incidents by placing more men in that activity but this
could not be done in the area of vice such as drugs, morals and liquor.
It seems that there is no saturation point because the more officers
assigned, the more crime there is reported.
Councilman Stokes ventured his op1n10n that the Council did not know
exactly what it was that it wanted and could not until it got more
background information from Mr. Lewis. Mr. Lewis in turn had to de-
termine what the Council wanted in order to gather the necessary in-
formation. He thought that there was a long way·to go before this
Minutes of the Adjourned City Council Meeting February 2, 1970
CC-35
page 3
could be resolved. He also requested that the City Manager make arrange-
ments for members of the Council to spend some time with the patrolmen
and Deputy Sheriffs in their cars during various times of the day and
night so they could see first hand what problems were being encountered.
At the request of Councilman Beaven, Mayor Dempster suggested to Mr.
Lewis that he set forth in an outline some of the major questions that
he would ask of the Council so that these then could be replied to,
sorted out and reported in writing. Mr. Lewis is to give these to the
City Manager for distribution to the Council.
The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 8:00 P.M.
ATTEST:
APPROVED:
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