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Position: Public Safety

Public Safety That Works in Every Neighborhood

By Tiffany Boccieri, candidate for Laguna Hills City Council, District 4 · Updated October 22, 2026

Start with the services we already pay for

Laguna Hills contracts with the Orange County Sheriff's Department for police services. The FY 2026–27 contract, approved by the county in June 2026, is approximately $12.1 million. That makes it the city's largest single expense, at roughly 42% of the General Fund's adopted FY 2026–27 operating spending. When a contract consumes that much of the budget, good oversight is part of supporting law enforcement.

We should keep emergency response a priority throughout the city and publish response-time data that can show where service needs improvement. Arrival times vary with urgency, staffing, location, and simultaneous emergencies, so no elected official can guarantee identical times on every call. We can demand a consistent standard and an honest explanation of results.

Put proactive attention where it will help most

Research supports carefully targeted police work at places with repeated crime, in addition to general patrol. Studies of problem-oriented policing also find meaningful reductions in crime and disorder, although outcomes vary considerably among programs. Those findings are a reason to test a focused approach here, without promising a specific percentage drop.

I would ask the Sheriff's Department to identify a small number of recurring, high-harm problems, such as a location with repeated robberies, break-ins, or serious assaults, and to describe a plan for each. What is happening? What is causing it? Which enforcement, prevention, property-management, or environmental changes might help? When will we check the outcome?

This should be done with the deputies and crime-prevention resources available under our contract. Any proposed change in staffing or assignments should come to the council for a cost-and-service review.

A quiet neighborhood can still need help

Residents often have concerns that fall short of a major crime. They may be worried about suspicious activity, an unsafe walk home, poor lighting, or repeated nuisance problems. Our crime prevention specialist and deputies can help with practical prevention, Neighborhood Watch, and referrals to the right city or county service.

Research associates fear of crime more with visible disorder than with personal experience as a victim. A Police Foundation study in Newark suggests it eases when patrols are visible and predictable and residents regularly hear what is being done. Better street lighting has also been shown to reduce crime.

These neighborhoods should still see police presence and have a clear way to report changing conditions. If conditions in a neighborhood change, so does the deployment. Crime counts are useful, and so are other measures of whether people feel safe or can get help.

Measure what we're getting

I would support a quarterly public safety update with response-time trends, serious-crime trends, progress on recurring problems, and understandable citywide spending figures. Where neighborhood-level data can be reported responsibly, we should include it, without identifying victims, compromising an investigation, or creating misleading comparisons from very small numbers.

I also want the council to review each major policing technology on cost, demonstrable benefit, privacy, and the alternatives. That review is why I oppose renewing Laguna Hills' Flock camera contract, and I will vote against renewing or expanding it. The U.S. Department of Justice's CrimeSolutions program rates license-plate recognition as ineffective at deterring crime, based on randomized trials. Research on its value to investigations is mixed. The city spends $115,000 a year on the system, and I believe that money does more as deputy time and proven prevention work. For any surveillance technology the city considers, I will require strict guardrails, public data practices, and a warrant requirement before anyone can search resident data. (See my Flock cameras position.)

My commitments as your District 4 representative