The City of Menlo Park has yet another reason to “like” the social media giant Facebook.
While construction of its new Menlo Park corporate campus is underway, Facebook has officially offered to foot the bill of an officer’s salary in order to secure regular patrols of the Belle Haven neighborhood—an area of the city with a low socioeconomic status and high crime rate.
The city council unanimously accepted the offer Tuesday night, adding that the company’s offer of $200,000 a year may need to be revisited down the road due to pension concerns.
Menlo Park police Chief Robert Jonsen hailed the proposal as a “benchmark in private-public partnerships.”
“In my 28 years in law enforcement, I have yet to work with a stronger community partner than Facebook,” Jonsen told the city council. “They only asked, ‘What can we do to make it safer?’”
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Facebook will fund the officer’s salary for three years, leaving the option open to extend the agreement for an additional two.
“The concept was for Facebook to carry the freight,” said City Manager Alex McIntyre to the San Jose Mercury News, “and they agreed to raise the cap if necessary.”
Read the full story at the San Jose Mercury News.