Healthy and Safe Communities

Safer Together

One of the most important things the County does is work to keep our communities healthy and safe―to make them great places to live, work and play.

That can range from building parks and libraries to adding firefighting resources and public health resources.

In June, the County broke ground on a new community resource center in Ramona. It will serve as a one-stop shop for residents who need behavioral health, public health, child welfare and self-sufficiency services like CalFresh, Medi-Cal and CalWORKs. The County also added fire crews, firefighting resources and an additional ambulance for the rural community.

At Lincoln Acres County Park, the County introduced a new multi-use sports court for children and residents.

Countywide, the County Sheriff’s department introduced a new “Hi-Low” siren system in patrol cars to make it easier to warn residents when they need to evacuate because of an emergency like a wildfire.

CAL FIRE and San Diego County Fire also added a new Type 1 firefighting helicopter that can drop about seven times more water than existing County fire choppers. The County broke ground on a new East Otay Mesa fire station. And it added water tanks and backcountry helicopter hydrants in Fallbrook, San Marcos, Julian and El Cajon, with plans to add them in Fallbrook, and Warner Springs, to give firefighting helicopters more water sources to use when fighting rural wildfires.

"The PHPR (County Public Health Preparedness and Response) team has been incredible especially over the past 3 years during the pandemic. They have worked diligently through the San Diego Healthcare Disaster Coalition to strengthen our regional work together for healthcare providers in various settings throughout the entire county…"

- San Diego Healthcare Disaster Coalition,
Customer Experience Survey

The County’s annual “Love Your Heart” blood pressure screening campaign alerted 646 people they could be facing imminent medical emergencies like strokes or heart attacks. And it warned another roughly 20,000 people they had higher-than-normal blood pressure levels. That gave them time to improve their health by losing weight, eating healthier, reducing stress and exercising more.

The County also gave out more than 400 swimming pool alarms to reduce drownings, started a program to remove graffiti from people’s property for free, implemented a three-phase plan to improve paramedic services countywide and participated in the annual Clear the Shelters event to find forever families for animals in our care.