Californians seem to like their local governments. In fact, the recently released report from the Public Policy Institute of California suggests that voters have strong confidence in their local governments and want more authority shifted to the local level. Not surprisingly, this is precisely the thinking behind public safety realignment, a historic change to California’s public safety system.

Gov. Jerry Brown calls this the “principle of subsidiarity.” When something needs to get done, give it to the smallest, least centralized organization that has the ability to do it.