Crime data in San Jose just got smarter

Residents will soon be able to view San Jose Police Department crime statistics broken down by council districts as part of an effort to expand transparency requirements citywide.

Rules Committee members voted unanimously to approve a proposal by Councilmember Arjun Batra to publish public safety data by districts. Batra said his goal is to change the perception of crime across San Jose and to have the SJPD provide specific data by district so councilmembers can address crime unique to their areas.

The police department confirmed it was aware of the request and working with the city to provide crime data by council districts, a spokesperson told San José Spotlight.

The Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Commission is expected to reconvene Oct. 17 with a plan and timeline for publishing monthly crime statistics by district, similar to the citywide data published on the SJPD website.

Batra said he didn’t want to generate additional work for the police. Then he learned from acting Police Chief Paul Joseph that the SJPD recently acquired technology that enables this deep dive into the data.

“Transparency breeds trust, and that trust is going to make us safer in a close-knit community,” Batra told San José Spotlight. “We would be able to see what areas we need to concentrate on (to bring) crime down, because we may find one place has more crime than the other and we need to be able to focus our resources accordingly.”

As a former high tech executive at IBM, he said he is familiar with data platforms and this work can be done at high speeds.

Batra requested more detailed crime data after Sunnyvale resident and Mayor Matt Mahan’s former legislative director Mason Fong first made the suggestion at a Sept. 19 Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Commission meeting.

Fong said district-specific crime data can help councilmembers “brag” to their residents about crime reduction.

“That’s something that would really empower council districts to instill faith, and thus really help also with retention efforts for officers,” Fong told commissioners. “You can measure officer wellness by saying, ‘How many incidents have you been involved with in the last two weeks that were priority one? … How many hours of overtime have you worked in the past two weeks?’”

More detailed data can then be run through an algorithm so the police department can have greater efficiency with its officers, Fong said.

Los Paseos Neighborhood Association President Greg Peck also said he is supportive of public safety data by district, as are the residents.

“As a neighborhood leader, at scheduled community meetings, I get many requests from residents in my neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods for current crime data. We request SJPD to provide this information,” Peck said. “A district breakdown would be a help to better recognize trends and offer direction to further improve public safety in San Jose.”

Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X, formerly known as Twitter.