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Novato police report highlights staffing gains and SAFE team’s diversion role
Summary
Chief Jim Neigold told the council the Novato Police Department is at full sworn staffing and outlined program growth; the SAFE mobile crisis team handled 1,340 calls (April–Dec) and resolved 96% without police or fire, prompting council discussion about expanding coverage to seven days with outside funding.
Novato’s police chief and the SAFE mobile crisis team told the City Council on Monday that policing staff levels have rebounded and that an alternative-response pilot is already diverting hundreds of nonemergency calls from uniformed responders.
Chief Jim Neigold said the department reached full sworn staffing in 2025, with recruits in the field-training program and the academy, and described a new three-year strategic plan intended to guide patrol, investigations and specialty units. Neigold credited partnerships — including the SAFE team — with improving service and reducing overtime burdens on officers.
The council then received a 10-month progress report on the SAFE program, a mobile crisis-response partnership…
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