Police Didn’t Target Homeless

I am both surprised by and disappointed in your editorial (“The Sweep That Backfired on Santa Ana,” Feb. 8) alleging improper conduct by the Santa Ana Police Department during its enforcement efforts in the Civic Center area.

Let me assure you that despite the unprecedented ruling that defines the homeless as an arbitrary class, the Santa Ana Police Department does not engage in, nor do we condone, activities that target a particular group of individuals not involved in illegal behavior.

Regardless of the court’s opinion that homeless people were the targets of the Aug. 15 project, we have consistently demonstrated that our focus remains solely on violators of the law and on the conditions which encourage such violations.

Our efforts were not designed to rid the Civic Center of the homeless and, in fact, were in large part due to an increase in assaults, rapes and other offenses which were perpetrated against homeless members of the Civic Center community.

Our activities during Operation Civic Center were both justified and appropriate as a response to numerous pleas by the Civic Center’s community for police intervention.

Our efforts were designed to break the progression from seemingly minor disorder to increasingly serious crime. Those we took into custody were arrested because they broke the law, not because they were white, black, Asian, Hispanic, young, old, male, female or homeless.

To our knowledge, there are no standards of appearance, speech or behavior that identify one as homeless. Our officers did not arrest anyone based on their residential status.

Normal police processing revealed that, of those arrested, almost half had prior arrest records for crimes, including accessory to murder, burglary, assault, kidnaping and auto theft. At least 10 of the arrestees had currently outstanding criminal warrants.

We have long maintained, however, that arrests alone will not solve the complex problems facing the Civic Center. We will continue to work with those seeking solutions. But we cannot, and must not, give up our sworn duty to enforce the law.

PAUL M. WALTERS, Chief of Police, Santa Ana