Santa Rosa Police emphasize community advisory team, beat newsletters and CivicReady outreach

Santa Rosa’s police chief described ongoing community-engagement work including a Chief’s Community Advisory Team that meets monthly, beat-specific newsletters for all nine patrol beats and coordinated public messaging through CivicReady and city channels.

“We have over 20 community members. They meet with me once a month,” Chief John Krieg said, summarizing the advisory team that was created in 2020 and restructured when he took office in 2022. Krieg said the city manager vets applications and the team provides outside input on policies ranging from pursuit and use-of-force policy to mental-health response. The department identified Lieutenant Dan Hackett as the liaison to the advisory team and provided a contact email: contactccat@srcity.org.

The department also described a beat-newsletter program produced bi-monthly by the patrol lieutenants that gives crime, traffic and outreach information for each of nine beats. “We have our city divided into 9 different patrol beats ... so that way, they have some continuity of responding to the calls,” the chief said. The department recommended residents sign up for CivicReady to receive beat and department messages and noted upcoming community events including National Night Out on Aug. 5.

Why this matters: Local community-advisory bodies and targeted newsletters are tools the police department is using to increase transparency, solicit feedback on policy and improve neighborhood-level communication.

Next steps: The department said the newly appointed CCAT will continue to review policies and meet with the independent police auditor. Officials encouraged community members and council offices to submit topics for the advisory team to study.