Santa Maria Police Department highlights ALPR success, mental‑health response in 2024 annual report

Commander Dan Cohen presented the Santa Maria Police Department’s 2024 annual report to the City Council on June 3, 2025, citing declines in auto thefts and expanded crisis‑response programs while outlining training, technology and staffing figures.

Cohen opened with the department’s mission and staffing: “The Santa Maria Police Department serves a growing city of over a 10,000 residents across 23 and a half square miles,” he said, and said 2024 operations were supported by approximately 40 sworn officers and 60 professional staff on an annual budget the department described as “approximately $55,000,000.” The report described dispatch handling, patrol responses, detective work and specialized units.

Automated license plate readers and crime trends: Cohen credited the ALPR program with helping investigate more than 1,300 cases and produce 474 arrests and 418 recovered vehicles since the program launched, noting a sharp drop in vehicle thefts: “Santa Maria once averaged over 1,000 stolen vehicles annually, peaking at 1,152 in 2022... in 2024 that number has dropped to 474, a 59% decrease.” The department said the program included city‑funded cameras and cameras deployed with federal grant money and private partners.

Mental‑health response and community policing: Cohen described an officer‑plus‑clinician mental‑health team that responds together to repeated contacts and crisis calls. “We can’t simply arrest our way out of the problem,” he said, describing the program as a means to connect individuals to services and reduce repeat calls for service. He said the clinician is from the county behavioral‑wellness program and the team wears non‑traditional attire to reduce escalation. Council member So to asked about expansion; Cohen said additional staffing and funding would be required and that the department would evaluate whether adding personnel would warrant a measurable return.

Training and technology: The department logged 9,165 training hours in 2024, increased web‑based training, and completed a first full year of body‑worn cameras. Cohen reported expansion of drone (UAS) operators, deployment of TASER 10 devices, a smart‑TV command station for detectives and a new online reporting tool intended to let residents file select reports and free patrol resources for higher‑priority calls.

Community programs and metrics: Cohen noted community outreach including National Night Out, youth academies, School Resource Officers and a crisis intervention team pairing officers with clinicians. He said Explorer volunteers contributed over 600 hours and cited the department’s canine, SWAT, crisis negotiation and mounted‑unit activities. In public comment, Laurie Tamura, president of the Santa Maria Police Council, described the volunteer council’s financial contributions over 17 years and promoted a June 20 fundraising event that is sold out.

Council questions: Council members asked for data on youth‑on‑youth violence and for metrics that extend beyond presence of School Resource Officers (SROs) — e.g., mentorship outcomes, calls for service changes, and campus safety statistics. Cohen said a crime analyst could pull demographic breakdowns and that SRO success can be measured in response time, calls avoided for patrol officers, school support and complaint levels. He agreed staff would provide additional data on youth violence if available.

Ending: The council thanked the department for the report and for ALPR results and community programs while requesting follow‑up on youth violence analytics and a continued update on the mental‑health response program and victim/witness support connections.