At the Pacific Beach Town Council meeting on Oct. 16, San Diego Police Department\u2019s Homeless Outreach Team and Neighborhood Policing Division fielded questions on homelessness and crime, while the newly forming Guardian Angels PB chapter introduced itself.
\nBilled as a public safety town hall, the event featured\u00a0acting Northern Division Capt. Matt Novak and SDPD lieutenants Corissa Pich, Raul Rivera, and Lisa McKean, as well as community liaison officer Larry Hesselgesser.
\nNovak noted he\u2019s previously worked on police gang, narcotics, and beach units. Of the Guardian Angels, Novak said: “We\u2019re meeting with them in the near future and we\u2019ll work hand-in-hand to ensure they are working within the law. Our goal is to make your community safer with any group that is out there.”
\nNovak said he\u2019s well aware of PB\u2019s quality of life and substance abuse issues “with alcohol, the many bars, and narcotics activities.”
\nDuring Q&A following officer presentations, one audience member asked why the unsheltered weren\u2019t being ticketed for defecating on the sidewalks, and why that wasn\u2019t considered a public health threat.
\n“That doesn\u2019t meet the legal criteria,” answered Rivera. “It\u2019s not against the law to be homeless or mentally ill. You just can\u2019t take people off the street without making a (psychological) assessment as best we can in the field. Officers make detentions based on that consultation.”
\nRivera added the standard police are held to is whether or not any particular activity is immediately dangerous to others.
\n“A lot of people need help, and just because they\u2019re mentally ill or a drug addict, they can\u2019t just [defecate] on the street and get away with it,” responded the audience questioner.
\nRivera said homeless issues can be reported to\u00a0hot@pd.sandiego.gov.
\n“It\u2019s not a perfect system,” noted Pich. “What I can tell you is we want to help.” Pich gave\u00a0neighborhoodpolicing@pd.sandiego.gov\u00a0as the email for people to call.
\nFrom the audience, past Pacific Beach Planning Group chair Brian Curry suggested a change needs to be made on the Get It Done app.
\n“Illegal dumping is the category for reporting encampments or activities like people with bikes and bike parts,” Curry noted. “You need something more descriptive than illegal dumping.”
\nThe Guardian Angels were represented by the new chapter\u2019s president, Paul McBride, and Sarah Bonesteel. “We\u2019re here to support crime safety,” said Bonesteel, adding, “We have a lot of programs other than patrols.”
\n“We do things the proper way working within the law on our patrols,” said McBride. “We use a non-violent approach to empower the community, and we are not allowed to carry weapons.”
\nFollowing the meeting one attendee, Mission Beach Town Councilmen Greg Knight, said he was impressed by the angels.
\n“I actually signed up for the Guardian Angels, mainly to see if it is an organization that we could use in Mission Beach,” Knight said.\u00a0“I figure the best way to test the waters was to sign up myself and see how it all works. Whether it is the Guardian Angels, Neighborhood Watches, or the volunteer police group, we need to get people walking at all hours keeping a watch out on the community.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the Pacific Beach Town Council meeting on Oct. 16, San Diego Police Department\u2019s Homeless Outreach Team and Neighborhood Policing Division fielded questions on homelessness and crime, while the newly forming Guardian Angels PB chapter introduced itself. Billed as a public safety town hall, the event featured\u00a0acting Northern Division Capt. Matt Novak and SDPD lieutenants […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":256420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"SDPD discusses public safety at Pacific Beach town hall","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}