Public Safety Reports

Police Operations and Data Analysis Report, Morgan Hill, California

numerous events throughout the community. The biggest event, the Mushroom Mardi Gras, attracts

thousands of people from across the region. Planning and coordinating this event from a police

perspective is a challenging responsibility that involves every operational element of the MHPD.

While there are no deficiencies noted with the current management of special events in Morgan

Hill, with the additional personnel capacity recommended for Field Operations (see above), it

would be beneficial for special event planning to be handled by the person in this position with

overall responsibility under the Field Operations commander.

The MHPD assigns one officer as a school resource officer (SRO). The SRO is the liaison between the

three high schools and the MHPD. The Morgan Hill Unified School District funds 50 percent of this

position. The SRO works general school hours and staffs special school events throughout the year.

The focus of this position departs somewhat from traditional law enforcement, such as arrests and

citation, and focuses on a collaborative and restorative approach to helping students in need.

Therefore, in addition to providing a visible police presence at the schools, the SRO is providing

outstanding crisis services to the students in need. It appears to be an excellent integration of the

myriad duties of an SRO and the MHPD should be commended for this effort.

To support criminal investigations, and crime reduction initiatives in general, the MHPD should

conduct more thorough and more rigorous crime analysis and criminal intelligence gathering.

Currently, this function is largely absent in the organization. The records management system

(RMS) now in place now offers the tools to support this process, but the manpower levels and

workload make this process difficult to implement. The crime level and nature of the community in

Morgan Hill are such that the absence of criminal intelligence is not critical. The relative safety and

homogeneity of the community make it possible for the officers to know and understand the crime

trends without the support of sophisticated analysis. However, this is an area of importance for the

Special Operations Division, and consideration should be given to establishing an effective crime

analysis and criminal intelligence function. In addition, this function could be performed by a newly

constituted street crime/gang team. This team would support both the investigative and patrol

efforts dealing with crime and community issues on a long-term and proactive basis. The

department currently lacks any capacity in this area and strong consideration should be given to

staffing this proactive enforcement team. Officers assigned to this team would be responsible for

both crime prevention strategies by working closely with the community AND would target the “hot

spots” and “hot people” identified through a robust intelligence function.

Special Investigations

The MHPD details out three detectives, one each assigned to the Santa Clara County Specialized

Enforcement Team (SCCSET), the Regional Auto Theft Task Force (RATTF), and the Drug

Enforcement Administration Task Force (DEATF). Each of these entities provides specialized

investigations into unique criminal enterprises, an effort that calls for interagency collaborations.

The DEATF’s mission is to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and seize dangerous drugs that exist in

Morgan Hill and the surrounding communities. The MHPD representative on the DEATF is assigned

for a two-year period. Over the last two years the MHPD detective has been involved in numerous