When you’re the victim of a crime, it doesn’t matter that San José was just named America’s Safest Big City. That’s an important title, but we still have work to do until everyone feels safe on our streets.

As the only candidate in this race who’s walked the beat, I have a common-sense plan for a safer San José: 

• Hire 100+ More Officers 

  • San Jose’s police department is one of the most short-staffed in the country, and we still have too many unfilled positions. I’ll work with SJPD to recruit and retain 100 more of the best officers who understand our community. We need to address officer attrition through programs like down payment assistance and invest in recruiting more qualified cadets to the academy.

• Address Root Causes 

  • As an officer, I saw it too often: kids with nowhere to go but gangs. That’s why we must continue to invest in summer job and after-school programs like San José Works to give our young people a shot and keep them off the streets. 

• Alternative Policing Programs 

  • While we work to hire more police, I’ll lessen the strain on officers with alternative responder programs like Santa Clara County’s TRUST program and San José’s Community Service Officer program for calls that don’t require an armed response. That way, we can speed up response times and have the police respond to calls only they can address. 

• Implement Prop 36 

  • Voters in District 9 and across California gave Prop 36 a mandate. But too many special interests and insiders in Sacramento refuse to fund it. The measure fights retail crime and mandates drug and alcohol treatment after a third conviction. As an officer and therapist, I’ve seen firsthand what the data shows: treatment reduces crime. That’s why I’ll work with state and local leaders to ensure Prop 36 gets the funding it deserves.

• Prevent Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence 

  • I was a sexual assault detective for several years. It’s one of the toughest jobs because you're investigating, working with kids and domestic violence victims, who are in their hour of crisis. Too often, victims would be afraid to come forward. We must work to make it easier for every survivor to report these horrific and chronically underreported crimes. 

• Blight Clean Up 

  • I serve as a commissioner on the City’s Appeals Hearing Board, and it’s too common for bureaucracy and red tape to stand in the way of cleaning up blighted property. I’ll cut red tape and stage more neighborhood clean-ups so we can build a brighter, more welcoming, more vibrant District 9. I’ll also ensure we continue to fund programs like BeautifySJ, which do critical work in our neighborhoods.