Public safety we can measure

Menifee has placed in the top twenty of SafeWise’s annual California safety rankings three years running, 17th this year among the 169 California cities ranked, based on 2024 FBI crime data, and we have had our own police department since July 2020. That is worth protecting. But “we’re safe” isn’t a plan.

Our police response times are public, if you know where to look: a table on printed pages 255 and 256 of the city’s 348-page budget book. The figures reported there, fiscal year 2024-25 actuals through March 30, 2025, are not good news for the most urgent calls. Priority 1 emergency calls averaged 11 minutes against the city’s own 8-minute target, up from 8 minutes the year before. Priority 2 and Priority 3 calls came in ahead of their targets. You will not find that number in the annual review the department publishes for residents, and the city’s own strategic plan set a June 2026 deadline for a police response time matrix. That deadline has passed.

License plate cameras deserve a straight answer too. Menifee’s Flock cameras have been credited with more than 120 arrests, and residents’ privacy concerns are still fair. The department now publishes its camera procedure and a public portal reporting a 30-day data retention period, with at least two program audits required each year. The next step is public accountability: publish the audit results, any violations and corrective actions, and a clear summary of which agencies can access Menifee data.

What I will push for:

• Put the response times where residents will see them. On the department’s website and in its annual review, with the trend, and an explanation of what is driving it.
• Staffing measured against the city we actually are. The city’s own annual financial report prints our police headcount and our population four lines apart and never divides them. Publish the ratio, track it as we grow, and staff to it.
• Fire and emergency medical coverage that grows with the northeast. Fire and EMS are contracted to CAL FIRE and Riverside County Fire, so those response times sit with the county, and the city should be asking for them on our behalf.

If we’re funding a department out of our own pockets, we should be able to see what we’re getting without a document search.