Improving public safety shouldn’t be solely contingent on infrastructure

Here’s a good example why we’re happy to see the City of El Centro preparing to move forward with plans to replace its outdated headquarters on Broadway Avenue: The Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army operates a resale store at 1301 S. Fourth St. in El Centro. The goods it sells are largely donated by members of the community. The proceeds from those sales help feed the homeless, provide disaster relief, and assist families in crisis.

In other words, the money helps do good things.

And if it’s true no good deed goes unpunished, then that establishment is performing brilliantly, because it is targeted by thieves or vandals almost nightly.

Locks are broken, fences cut, glass smashed and donations stolen with tedious regularity. Thieves have twice stolen the batteries from the Corp’s delivery trucks within the past few months. They’ve nabbed the red kettle for cash donations sitting near the register so many times the store stopped replacing it.

Another popular trick employed by what appears to be some-less- than scrupulous house-cleaning companies is to collect any and all junk left behind at abandoned rental properties and deposit it at night at the front gate of the store.

Todd Young, The Salvation Army Thrift Store’s warehouse manager, tells us some of these “donations” can take up to two or three hours to clean up before the store can open, and they cost the Corps hundreds every month in dumping fees at the local landfill.

Young says hardly a morning passes when he doesn’t have to file a report with the El Centro Police Department. Unfortunately, those reports appear to lead to almost no deterrence and almost no arrests.

“They are getting more and more brazen,” he says of the store’s vandals and looters.

It seems to us predictable crime like what’s happening at Fourth and Ross can only thrive in an environment without fear of surveillance or consequences.

Conventional wisdom in fishing is to cast your line where you know the fish are biting. One would think that same wisdom would apply to catching thieves.

Maybe Young is correct when he speculates local law enforcement doesn’t really care about the break-ins and theft at the store. But we’re going to give the benefit of the doubt and suggest this relentless series of unsolved crimes reflects an overburdened and undermanned department.

A budget-motivated hiring freeze last year put three officer positions in the El Centro Police Department in stasis until October, when the city council finally agreed to revive them. But as El Centro Police Officers Association President told the council back in June, “Even if we got those three, it won’t solve the problem. We need to add to our staff.”

Most appear to agree, including Interim Police Chief Alvaro Ramirez. But there’s a problem: “We have been pushing to add personnel, but we don’t have anywhere to put them,” he told our Edwin Delgado.

The current ECPD headquarters is almost 70 years old. It’s cramped, inefficient and deteriorating. An upgrade is a priority that is long overdue.

Nevertheless, from what we understand, it could still be up to five years before a new facility is in place. That’s an awful long time to suffer with ECPD’s current limitations in staffing and resources.

We suggest El Centro’s leaders should be prepared to get creative in exploring options to improve public safety while we’re awaiting the improvements in infrastructure.

No one should have to start almost every day expecting to call police.