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Santa Rosa police roll out 2025–2029 strategic plan as department reports mixed 2024 crime and traffic trends
Summary
Chief John Kriegen presented a five-year strategic plan and summarized 2024 statistics, citing large increases in illegal firearm and ghost-gun seizures, a drop in shootings and homicides, and rising fatal collisions.
Santa Rosa — Santa Rosa Police Chief John Kriegen on Thursday presented a five-year strategic plan for 2025–2029 and reviewed 2024 department statistics showing both declines in violent incidents and rising traffic fatalities.
The strategic plan, Chief Kriegen said, was developed using multiple surveys and meetings that gathered input from department staff, 945 respondents to a citywide survey, more than 65 community meeting attendees and a 21‑member chief’s community advisory team selected by the city manager. The department published the plan on its website and intends to track progress on an internal dashboard shared monthly with command staff.
Krigen said the plan is organized into six pillars: fostering community safety and reducing crime; organizational excellence; enhancing technology and innovation; organizational wellness; facility and equipment needs; and community engagement. He described 35 objectives and said the department intends to be action-oriented in implementing them.
The department also reported key 2024 statistics. Kriegen told the subcommittee that shooting-related incidents fell by 52%, from 361 reported incidents in 2023 to 73 in 2024, and that homicides declined from 10 in 2023 to 2 in 2024. At the same time, illegal firearm seizures increased from 259 in 2023 to 390 in 2024, and the department reported an increase in privately manufactured “ghost” firearms, rising to 124 seizures in 2024 (up from a prior-year high of 55). Kriegen said juvenile arrests involving firearms numbered 30 in 2024.
Kriegen highlighted enforcement and investigative units that contributed to the results, including a reconvened gang-crimes team, a special-enforcement team and a violent-crimes team that he said maintained a homicide clearance rate above 90%.
Traffic safety remained an area of concern. Kriegen said priority-1 response time improved from about 6 minutes 57 seconds to roughly 6 minutes 31 seconds in 2024, but that injury collisions rose 19% and fatal collisions increased from two to six in 2024. He said the department is working with the city’s Transportation and Public Works director to pursue engineering and grant solutions, including in-car radar and community speed signs.
Council members praised components of the plan, including organizational wellness and increased community engagement. Vice Mayor Alvarez said she favors U.S.-made drone components where feasible and prefers non‑general-fund approaches for pilot programs such as the drone-as-first-responder proposal discussed earlier.
No formal council action was taken on the strategic plan at the meeting; Kriegen said the department will continue outreach and report progress to city leaders and the public.
