A county service area (CSA) is a type of local government which is similar to a special district. CSAs operate under the County Service Area Law (Government Code §25210.1 et seq.) created in the 1953 and amended in 2008 by SB 1458, A county board of Supervisors always govern a CSA, which can provide any type of county service or a higher level of any county service that the county government provides to an unincorporated area.
CSA 38 was created on January 12, 1983 as a funding mechanism to provide extended police protection in the unincorporated area. Prior to 1983, the four cities (Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Scotts Valley and Capitola) were providing police patrol outside their city boundaries in the unincorporated areas. They requested that the County take on these services.
In order to fund separate police protection for the portion of the population that lives in the unincorporated area (outside city boundaries), property owners taxed themselves. CSA 38 collects property taxes to assist in funding the sheriff’s patrol services in the unincorporated county areas.
Patrols in the unincorporated area include two teams divided into 11 beats with 3 shifts to provide a 24-hour period of coverage. Patrol services also include special services such as search and rescue, air squadron, bomb team, hostage negotiation team and K-9 unit. Data on monthly service calls within the patrol division can be found at https://www.scsheriff.com/SheriffHome/Transparency/MonthlyAgencyStatistics.aspx.