The Salinas Police Department is perceived by the local media to be open and forthcoming with information, although the department does far less than required by California law. Even so, the department has avoided serious problems primarily because it has not experienced major incidents such as complaints of widespread police corruption and police brutality and has not had to deal with an incident of extreme public interest. In addition, the department has taken many positive steps to ensure as much information as possible is given to the public, for example, disseminating information about high-risk offenders in the community and publicizing the availability of information about serious offenders. The department also has its own home page that offers information to the public about crime mapping, rewards for information on specific crimes, crime statistics, online crime and incident reporting, and citizen complaint forms. Technologies to improve the dissemination of information by the Salinas Police Department are noted, including voice recognition technology and artificial intelligence. The movement toward community policing is discussed. 12 references