San Carlos police report shows small declines in several crime categories; chief highlights new reporting system and PER successes

San Mateo County Sheriff's Office Captain/Chief Mark Meyers presented the San Carlos 2024 police services report on Aug. 25, summarizing staffing, activity, technology upgrades, crime trends and behavioral-health co-response outcomes.

Key figures from the presentation - Reporting system: the department adopted a National Incident-Based Reporting (NIBRS / "NERS") system, which expands recorded offense categories and complicates comparisons to historic UCR figures. - Crime counts: crimes against persons fell from 126 to 119; crimes against property decreased from 771 to 757; crimes against society (drug, prostitution, weapons), dropped from 280 to 149. - Clearance and workload: the department reported a 67% clearance rate for crimes against persons, handled about 1,724 crime reports last year, and logged 464 arrests. - Response times: Chief Meyers said the average emergency response is "4 minutes 21 seconds," noting anomalies during dispatch clearing and that the department is reviewing calls to improve training and dispatch procedures. - Operations and technology: The bureau reported five full-time community service officers, two K9 deputies assigned to San Carlos (deployments detailed), 26 body-worn cameras, new 3D scanning equipment for collision reconstruction and the Flock vehicle-tracking technology used to aid investigations. - Behavioral health: The PER (psychiatric emergency response) partnership received 148 referrals from San Carlos in 2024; 43 were 72-hour holds (5150), 85 were referred by patrol; PER accepted many cases for follow-up and the chief gave examples of successful de-escalation that avoided force or hospitalization.

Council Q&A and public comments Council members asked about drone first-responder pilots (county-executive funded demonstrations), heat maps and pattern analyses for theft/property crime distribution, the effect of county-level sheriff turbulence on local operations, e-bike education with the school district and potential additional motor-unit staffing for traffic enforcement.

Public comment: a NAMI representative earlier in the meeting urged continued city support for mental-health resources and sponsorships; Meyers used the PER examples as part of his reply about behavioral-health responses.

Background and context Chief Meyers emphasized the new reporting system inflates counts relative to historic UCR numbers because more components of single incidents are tracked (for example, ID theft linked to a burglary can now be recorded separately). He also detailed efforts to improve deescalation (training), response-time accuracy (dispatch coordination) and community engagement (Coffee with the Chief, public safety day).