Santa Ana City Councilmembers want the Police Department to begin detaining people who are found passed out or intoxicated in public, such as on sidewalks or in parks, taking them to the city jail where they can be connected with rehabilitation services.
Councilmember Phil Bacerra introduced the idea, saying the city needs to take action to address substance abuse issues in Santa Ana and that existing state laws allow for detaining individuals who are publicly intoxicated. He shared stories of seeing people unresponsive, laying on the ground alongside roads or appearing highly intoxicated sitting on bus and park benches.
A majority of counclimembers supported the idea, saying Santa Ana is spending money on public parks, bus benches and other amenities that cannot be used by residents because they are being taken up by the presence of homeless or inebriated people. But some on the dais worried in a recent meeting such a policy would do more harm than good and not address the needs of those facing homelessness.
Bacerra said this is an opportunity to get people sober – those detained would receive information on substance abuse treatment services before their release – and have a “more productive conversation” about seeking those services.
City staffers are being asked to work with the Police Department to hire the necessary medical staff at the local jail to minimize the use of hospital emergency rooms.
“The transition from the nurse to a nurse practitioner and any other appropriate medical staff would allow us to medically clear and address those minor medical issues right after jail versus having an officer have to sit with an arrestee at the hospital for hours and hours,” Bacerra said.
When possible and before they leave the Santa Ana Jail, detained individuals who are not from the community should be offered a bus ticket or voucher to get back to their place of origin, Bacerra said, adding many are from out of state.
Bacerra said the idea is not to “arrest our way out of the problem,” but something has to be done.
But Councilmember Benjamin Vazquez said incarceration has proven to be “detrimental” to the community, especially to people of color.
“The leading cause of homelessness is recidivism,” Councilmember Jonathan Hernandez added. “Locking people up is the fastest way to exasperate the homelessness crisis that we’re all experiencing. The general consensus when we look at an issue like this is that this is a one-size-fits all solutions that is being proposed today and, unfortunately, it’s not going to be that simple.”
Bacerra said people should not be able to “continuously break the law and diminish our residents’ quality of life.”
“Something has to be done, and unfortunately, because we’ve had no true assistance from the state government, we have to now come up with something that allows us to prioritize the quality of life for our residents while at the same time trying to find a way that helps bring the offer of services to these folks who are very impacted by substance abuse,” Bacerra added.
Santa Ana Police Department Assistant Chief Robert Rodriguez said in a statement that a statutory provision is already in place and officers “have the discretion to use it as another tool to proactively address quality of life issues impacting our community.”
“It is important to emphasize that our enforcement actions are guided by principles of fairness, impartiality, and adherence to due process,” Rodriguez said. “We are committed to ensuring that our interactions with individuals suspected of disorderly conduct are conducted within the bounds of the law, respecting the rights of all parties involved.”
Matt Bates, vice president at City Net, a nonprofit that provides homelessness resources in Santa Ana and elsewhere in the county, said the policy would not impact the work they do at the street-level.
“We don’t want to see people sleeping on the sidewalk either. We want to see people sleeping in shelter and housing,” Bates said. “Our mission and our work doesn’t change. We are engaged seven days a week, 14 hours a day in the city to engage homeless neighbors and try and connect them to services and to care.”
