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In the Coachella Valley, Riverside County or the individual cities provide public services.
For fire protection, Palm Springs and Cathedral City residents depend on their own city-run departments. The two cities have mutual aid agreements with the surrounding jurisdictions and Palm Springs has an automatic aid agreement with neighboring departments, meaning the nearest neighboring unit will respond to any Palm Springs call.
The other valley cities and unincorporated areas are covered by Riverside County and the California Department of Forestry. The cities contract with Riverside County, which in turn contracts with the state, to provide fire protection services. The fire fighters in these areas are state employees and are trained to fight both wilderness and structure fires.
Coachella Valley residents' police protection is provided by city departments or the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. In the valley, the cities of Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Indio operate their own departments. The cities of Coachella, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage contract with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department to provide peace officers. The Sheriff's department covers the unincorporated areas, and the highways are monitored by the California Highway Patrol.
In general, violent crime is low in the Coachella Valley; most of the area's criminal activity centers around personal property, including larcenies and burglaries, according to the Uniform Crime Reports supplied by the federal Justice Department.
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