By Robert Haugh

A couple sources have shared with us some information from a poll that the Santa Clara Police Officers Association (POA) did in May, right before the June primary.

Here’s some interesting tidbits:

• Almost nine in 10 Santa Clara voters felt disgraced former Councilmember Dominic Caserta did the right thing by resigning after allegations of sexual harassment and sexual abuse came out against him. That’s not a big surprise.
• However, most voters didn’t know that the POA (only 11 percent knew) or Mayor Lisa Gillmor (only 26 percent knew) asked him to resign. Looks like most voters don’t read the Santa Clara Weekly — ouch. Or Santa Clara News Online — self-ouch.
• The POA has super high positive ratings — 82 percent.  Only 12 percent had a negative view of Santa Clara’s finest.
• Another Only one other organization was tested in the poll — the San Francisco 49ers, They had a much lower positive rating — 46. And they had a way higher negative –36. Those are not great numbers. And the poll was done before Jimmy Garoppolo went on a date with a porn star. The newest 49er star has been renamed “Jimmy G-string” by some sportswriters.

https://twitter.com/MMcCarthyREV/status/1022548519150866432

Seriously, the POA should be proud of their number, even though it’s from their own poll. But it’s consistent with other polling that also shows them to be just as popular —  although not as popular as firefighters. (Sorry, POA).

The police department has had some recent setbacks with lawsuits. But it looks like Santa Clarans are blaming Chief Mike Sellers and the top brass for the problems, not the front line officers. It probably helps that the POA does some good community and charity work, too.

This poll is also consistent with the extensive polling and focus groups done by the City a few months ago. That work showed that Mission City residents don’t trust the 49ers. Maybe the team needs to take lessons from the POA.

Thanks again to our sources who gave us some info from the POA poll. We know that there’s additional questions and info that we didn’t get. We haven’t given up. Stay tuned.