Salinas is a place where things grow: enough produce to feed the nation, enough wildflowers to blanket the nearby mountains, and all the dreams you might expect in one of the youngest cities in America. It’s a community of 150,000 where the median age is 28 years.

We’re located near where the Salinas River ends its journey through its great valley to the Monterey Bay. Thanks to the soil, the climate — and hard-working, talented people — it’s one of the most fertile regions on earth.

This has been the home of Esselen and Ohlone Indians, Spanish missionaries and ranchers, American frontier people, and immigrants from Latin America, Japan, the Philippines, Switzerland — the world over. It was the birthplace of John Steinbeck, who set his novels East of Eden and Of Mice and Men in the Salinas Valley.

In the early 20th Century, an agricultural “Green Gold Rush” made Salinas for a time one of the wealthiest cities per capita in the United States, and the area became known as the “Salad Bowl of the World.” It also became a refuge for farmers fleeing the Dust Bowl, and later saw Cesar Chavez lead farmworkers in building better lives.

Much has changed over time, but growing things is still what Salinas is all about. Lately, that includes agricultural technology, green business, a thriving wine region, health and medical services and more. Most important of all, it includes our next generation of Salinians.

And all of this is what we serve and protect as Salinas Police Officers: not just what our community has, but what it can grow.