Every police officer is a firefighter – and an EMT – in this South Bay City. Is that the “magic sauce” to being one of America’s safest cities?

Under a blazing bright November sun, Officer Andrew Tara re-arranged the gear for his patrol car on the asphalt outside of the department headquarters in Sunnyvale. Inside the car, evidence bags and a riot helmet is familiar to most police officers — not so much the other items he carries: a defibrillator and a full firefighting uniform with a respirator.

The gamut of equipment might seem unusual for a police officer, but Tara isn’t just a police officer, he’s also a firefighter and an EMT – and so is every other officer in Sunnyvale’s Public Safety Department.

Sunnyvale is one of the only departments in the country that fully cross-trains police officers as firefighters and EMTs. With the department celebrating its 75th anniversary last year, many city leaders tout the success of the model as part of the reason Sunnyvale ranks among the safest cities in the Bay Area and beyond. And while the data is unclear on whether the combined department should take the credit for that success, the model has offered unique advantages that city leaders say could serve the city for years to come.

“We do three jobs all in one. You could be in a police uniform this year, and next year, you could be driving a fire engine,” said Sunnyvale Public Safety Department Chief Dan Pistor. “That’s what really makes us different.”

When the department was founded in 1950, Sunnyvale had fewer than ten thousand residents and Santa Clara Valley was just beginning its transition from agricultural destination to the beating heart of technological innovation.

At the time, Sunnyvale had a police department of only 16 people, a volunteer fire department and no EMT department. But in 1950 Sunnyvale was looking to begin a professional fire department, and then City Manager Kenneth Hunter thought that blending the police and fire department would be the best use of the city’s money and result in a safer community. So with two patrol cars, three fire trucks and 23 officers, the city moved forward with its new model.

Now, 75 years later, the department’s unique approach remains even if it has grown more than tenfold with the city better known as a hub for tech giants like Google and Apple then the small town that dried and canned fruit.

Its longevity makes Sunnyvale’s Public Safety Department one of the oldest in the country.

Of the over 18,000 departments dedicated to police work in the US, only about 130 put police and fire under a single system, according to counts from 2016, and departments like Sunnyvale, where officers are fully cross-trained, are rarer still.

The model requires extensive instruction for every officer, with nearly two years of training during which recruits become certified as EMTs, firefighters and police officers.

Officers rotate between fire and police duties every year, though those who specialize further, such as with crime scene investigations, can stay in their roles longer.

“The appeal of being able to do both is huge, and then being able to advance in the two different fields, there’s always that chance to get better,” said Matt Dupuis, who has served as an officer with the department for 11 years.

Several officers interviewed by The Mercury News echoed the appeal of the variety of the job, and the department claims a 90 percent retention rate after training is completed.

It’s a statistic likely aided by another unique aspect of the department: Sunnyvale’s public safety officers are among the highest-paid of any public safety employees in the county, with their recruitment website boasting salaries of up to $247,069. Even so, a Mercury News analysis of city budgets showed that the department actually spent less per capita on public safety and similar amounts per total employees compared to similar cities across the Bay Area.

“We are three departments in one,” said Pistor. “It saves the city from having a separate fire budget, separate police budget, separate EMS budget, along with separate administration, separate buildings and all of that. So in the long run, this model does save money for the city.”

For years, the city has graced roundups of the safest large cities in the country, at times topping nationwide lists, and public safety officials tout their blended department as a key part of that.

While Sunnyvale has lower rates of violent crime than similarly-sized cities across the Bay Area, when compared to other cities with the same median household income throughout the Bay, Sunnyvale sees similar crime rates.

The same is true for instances of police violence, according to a Mercury News analysis of state data on incidents where police killed or seriously injured someone. Sunnyvale saw lower rates of police violence compared to similarly sized cities, but it ranked close to those with similar median income.

Still, Sunnyvale has some of the lowest rates of violent crime in the Bay Area, and city leaders say the model has played a key role.

Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein admits that many things could factor into public safety, from the socioeconomic status of the city to the “small town,” “welcoming feel.”

“I know that the model itself isn’t a fix, but I think it helps break down barriers in our community,” said Klein. “There’s a lot that makes Sunnyvale unique … our merged model is part of the magic sauce that makes our city so great.”

Beyond simple metrics of public safety, the model offers a degree of flexibility that has allowed the department to respond rapidly to emergencies across Sunnyvale.

Officers interviewed by this news organization cited as an example when police vehicles are the first on the scene to medical emergencies, the officer can start providing medical attention until fire fighters or an ambulance arrive — and even help provide assistance after.

If the site of a medical emergency or fire is also a crime scene, then the firefighters who respond to an emergency are trained on how to preserve the evidence so that those who investigate later have what they need to solve a crime.

The model also can ease coordination between those assigned as fire and police. The department shares a single radio system and dispatch system.

This level of integration could be a significant boon to the department, said Brian Higgins, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who consults with public safety departments across the nation. Higgins previously oversaw fire, police and emergency management departments in Bergen County, New Jersey.

“Communications are always issues when it comes to police and fire,” said Higgins, who maintained that for coordinating across departments “there’s a real advantage to having this mixed model.”

Even so, Higgins, city officials and some in the department note that transitioning to the model would be difficult. And while Higgins doesn’t recommend the model for every department, he has a simple message regarding its success: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The Police Records Access Project contributed policing data and data analysis to this report.