City of Morgan Hill Public Safety Master Plan

City received the “Life Safety Achievement Award” in 2014, from Grinnell Mutual, National Association of State Fire Marshals and the Residential Fire Safety Institute for outstanding fire safety statistics, including zero fire deaths, and effective fire prevention programs in 2013. Our success is not without the acknowledgement of some future challenges. 2016 saw a 10 percent higher number of community requests for services for police when compared to a prior three year average. Also, the impacts of recent state-wide sentencing reform are unknown; however, the perceived preliminary impacts of Proposition 47 on Morgan Hill and other communities are of concern. Maintaining a safe community will require the continued ability of our officers to have the adequate time to be proactive in their vital efforts to abate crime. Despite the decline in structural fires nationally, fire department responses have nearly tripled in the last 30 years. (11.8 Million in 1985 and 33.6 million in 2015). While we do not have available data specific to the last 30 years for Morgan Hill, we have seen an increase since 2013 in the number of reported incidents for service in the City. In 2013, per dispatch data, 2,786 incidents were created while in 2015, 3,414 incidents were created. A 22 percent increase in just two years. This trend seems to continue per dispatch records as the City had 3,657 incidents created in 2016 (31 percent increase since 2013). While the City has remained effective and continues to meet our established benchmarks, it is obvious that fire department requests have increased. This affects resource availability, and allocation of firefighter time from other duties that have an direct impact on fire protection and emergency medical services to maintain our safe community. An example of some proactive and prevention duties include training, inspections, and public education. We look forward to presenting further PSMP details, answering your questions, and receiving further direction as needed at the February 22 nd Council Meeting Sincerely,

Steve Rymer City Manager

David Swing Chief of Police

Derek Witmer

Fire Chief

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