Together for a Safe Santa Cruz County

All members of our community deserve safety and well-being where we live, work and play. We believe this is a shared desire and right of all who live here.

Today, members of our community are rightly concerned about our public safety - including property crimes, gun violence, drug abuse, homelessness, and untreated mental-illness. We share these concerns and the desire for effective action to improve our community’s health and safety.

Fear and frustration from these very real issues lead to ineffective reactive responses, quick-fix solutions and the scapegoating of the most vulnerable populations in our community. These reactions do not lead to the effective and sustainable solutions that Santa Cruz County needs to truly solve these problems. It is time to find another way.

We are committed and ready to work collaboratively with all who want to take a different approach to create a healthier and safer community. In order to truly achieve public safety, we must work together across sectors, ideologies and geographies to implement solutions that:

1. Address the root causes of the problems in addition to meeting immediate needs

2. Identify and support evidence-based policies, strategies and programs that are cost-effective

3. Produce measurable results toward short and long term public safety goals identified by all sectors of the community

4. Ensure that all our community members are treated with equity, dignity and respect

No one individual, organization or group has the definitive answer. By signing this declaration, we are saying as a community that we want to work together in transparent and solution-focused collaboration for a healthier and safer Santa Cruz County.