Homelessness placing a strain on public safety
EL CENTRO — Patrol Sgt. James Thompson of the El Centro Police Department listens patiently as a homeless man called Coy explains why he’s not quite ready to abandon living amid a mound of debris collected around a makeshift tent near a bridge on Interstate 8.
Thompson has suggested that Coy check himself into a rehabilitation program such as faith-based New Creations. Coy is politely having none of it. “I think I’d like to try and do it on my own for a while,” he said.
“OK,” Thompson agreed, not having much choice in the matter. Then he reminded Coy and the rest of the occupants present at the makeshift encampment that they and their belongings need to be moved by Monday afternoon. Anything they don’t want will be disposed of for them.
The homeless men promise to comply, but later today, it’s unlikely they’ll have gone far. Thompson explained their camp is near the intersection of properties belonging to IID, Union Pacific Railroad and Caltrans. So when the homeless are shooed off one property they cross an invisible line and move to the next, and the eviction process starts all over again.
Current case law makes it nearly impossible to come by with a trash truck and haul the mess away. The old saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure certainly applies here, as the courts have ruled the miscellaneous stuff that homeless people manage to gather for themselves constitutes personal property and merits certain legal protection. So the police can’t simply dispose of it without permission, Thompson said. Instead, they’re required to hold it for up to 90 days. Given the volume and unsanitary nature of these “treasures,” that’s not a workable option.
“You would not believe the kinds of things they are keeping,” he said.
Thompson, who is in charge of ECPD’s homeless outreach program, said he and the city’s other patrol officers usually spend the majority of their time addressing issues related in one way or another to the homeless population in El Centro.
The situation has become so frustrating for the department that on July 22, it posted a message on its Facebook page addressing its efforts and limitations in dealing with the problem, as well as issuing a request to the public that people no longer give cash to individual homeless persons, but rather donate to local agencies and charities that provide assistance to the homeless.
“Being able to panhandle for loose change only perpetuates many of the problems facing the homeless community,” ECPD said.
Frequently, the money winds up going to drugs and alcohol, Thompson said. By way of illustrating the point, he took this reporter Friday morning in the area surrounding Fifth and State streets, where a parade of individuals on foot and on bicycle were making their way to the Imperial Valley Methadone Clinic. It’s a daily ritual, Thompson said, and many of the patrons use it to supplement other fixes.
Later in the morning, Thompson was dispatched to the Greyhound bus terminal at 460 State St. to follow up on the report of a woman who had reportedly holed up in the ladies room and refused to come out. The woman, who apparently was homeless, was in the company of two other ECPD officers when Thompson arrived. A search for drugs turned up empty, but officers did find a used meth pipe among the woman’s belongings, which led to her arrest.
It proved to be a fairly busy morning. There also was report of a woman, possibly on drugs, wandering in traffic on Fourth Street. Thompson searched the area, but the woman wasn’t found. He also followed up on a report of another woman thought to be possibly lost or in distress near a 7-Eleven parking lot on Fourth Street. It turned out to be a homeless woman in her 70s who was more or less just hanging out and visiting her “invisible cats.” She appeared to be in no immediate danger or distress, so Thompson moved on after chatting with her for several minutes.
Earlier, Thompson and other ECPD officers responded to a call at
another 7-Eleven, this one on Ocotillo Drive, involving a fight between a patron and a homeless person who allegedly had stolen something on a prior occasion out of the customer’s truck. The story at the scene was that the customer, a very large (as in football-lineman large) man, attempted to make a citizen’s arrest. The transient, who is said to have a reputation for petty theft, reportedly elected to resist violently and failed. He was seated in one of the store’s shopping aisles with blood running from an apparent cut above his eye when Thompson arrived at the scene.
These and other activities involving homeless appear to keep ECPD quite busy. “We get a number of calls, daily as a matter of fact, regarding issues and concerns involving people from the local ‘homeless’ population,” ECPD said in its Facebook post. “The calls range in severity from simple concern and illegal camping to aggressive panhandling, drug use, theft and even acts of violence.”
Thompson said it’s a tremendous drain on a department that he believes is already understaffed. Besides himself there were only four officers patrolling the city during the day on Friday, which he said is typical and has been for years.
Certainly, Thompson would like to see more officers on patrol — not necessarily because he believes it would solve the homeless problem, but because it would improve public safety.
Truth is, Thompson knows the problem is a lot bigger than him or a single law enforcement agency. “We can’t arrest our way out of this situation,” he said. “It’s just not going to fix anything.”