Where are we going?

The County of San Diego is a leader throughout the region in public safety and criminal justice administration. Our County criminal justice departments work collaboratively with other local law enforcement by investigating crime, prosecuting and defending those accused of crimes, holding offenders in custody, and supervising people in the community on probation.

Keeping crime rates low will not just happen. It requires an aggressive and thoughtful strategy that targets the root causes of crime and addresses the key crime risk factors. We will continue to practice the crime prevention and interruption strategies that helped us reach these low rates of crime, and we will work to extend our historically low adult and juvenile crime rates by:

Targeting prolific offenders through strategies such as Information-Led Policing, which focuses on serious and/or violent offenders to increase community safety.
Participating in multi-agency task forces and collaborative policing to lessen the ongoing threats of human trafficking, illegal drugs and gangs.
Helping those facing homelessness by increasing opportunities for community engagement and providing additional resource referrals.
Promoting opportunities for children and young adults.
Strengthening prevention and enforcement strategies to protect children, youth and older adults from neglect and abuse.

Today’s youth represent tomorrow’s leaders, and the County will continue to help them achieve their full potential. Declining numbers of youth in the juvenile justice system indicate significant progress. We will work with schools, families, community organizations and law enforcement to ensure this trend continues by:

Providing diversion and supportive community-based programs to help keep youth from entering the juvenile justice system.
Working to interrupt the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
Meeting the mental health and other needs of youth in the juvenile justice system.
Developing mentoring programs for at-risk and justice-involved youth; connecting youth to people with similar life experiences.

References

Crime in the San Diego Region, San Diego Association of Governments, September 2024.
SANDAG. CIBRS Group A Detailed Report Data. August 16, 2024. https://opendata.sandag.org/ARJIS/CIBRS-Group-A-Detailed-Report-Data/7sps-5pd9/about_data.
U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation. Additional Datasets: Summary Reporting System (SRS). September 23, 2024. https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#.
San Diego County Sheriff's Department contracted cities include Del Mar, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Poway, Santee, Lemon Grove, Vista, San Marcos and Imperial Beach.