There’s a chance the Los Altos Police Department could add Los Altos Hills next year to its law enforcement coverage.
With the Hills’ contract with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office set to expire June 30, the town’s staff and council members are exploring options. Neighboring Los Altos is an obvious one.
Preliminary indications are that Los Altos leaders are interested in at least considering the possibility. The Los Altos City Council last week gave the go-ahead for city staff to discuss specifics. Los Altos Hills would employ a consultant and conduct a study as part of the process. The town’s city council gave the OK Aug. 17 to explore options with Los Altos as well as with the Sheriff’s Office.
The action comes at a time when the town has been experiencing an increase in burglaries. The response has meant additional overtime deputies, additional detective hours and private security patrols.
“The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department has been a great partner the entire way and continues to provide exceptional customer and law enforcement services to the town,” said Los Altos Hills City Manager Peter Pirnejad. “The town thought it was appropriate to simply explore options with other agencies that include the Los Altos Police Department.”
“We could look at some of the underlying issues and determine it doesn’t make sense to move forward,” said City Manager Gabriel Engeland at the Aug. 22 meeting. “We would keep moving forward until it didn’t make sense, but I would not anticipate it to be a several-month study.”
In fact, Los Altos Hills needs to give 180-days’ written notice to the Sheriff’s Office if the town decides to change law enforcement providers. That likely means Los Altos would have to agree to a contract before the end of the year.
“I wouldn’t want to put a definite outcome on it, but I think we would get enough results back for the council to make an informed decision if they wanted to proceed,” Engeland said. “One of the things we tell staff all the time is, ‘A quick no is better than a long maybe.’”
Los Altos Police Chief Angela Averiett was receptive to the idea.
“I think this is an exciting possibility and I look forward to engaging in exploratory conversations with the Hills,” she said in an email to the Town Crier.
Questions arise
The possibility opens numerous questions that range from increased staffing and response times to use of automated license plate readers that Los Altos Hills currently employs.
The biggest initial concern raised last week was impact on current Los Altos law enforcement.
“Los Altos residents might feel like they’re getting shortchanged, and the police are all covering Los Altos Hills,” said Los Altos resident Freddie Wheeler. “So, if there’s a way to address that by making sure we’re not short-staffed on police officers, that would be helpful.”
“Number 1, my requirement is going to be that police services to our community either are at par or are improved because of the economy of scale and scope,” Councilmember Pete Dailey said. “And I do understand that Los Altos Hills wants to have a substation or some sort of facility, and they’re going to build it. But what that ends up meaning for the combined communities is a deeper reserve of forces to respond to events in the community.”
Added Vice Mayor Jonathan Weinberg: “I have a hard time imagining that I would ever support a proposal that would somehow add cost to the city of Los Altos or in any way degrade the level of service that the city is getting.”
There was no timeline given on when city staff would return to the Los Altos council for an update.
– Jennah Pendleton
contributed to this story
