Public invited to Ventura Police Community Meeting Addressing Vagrancy and Homelessness
medications arial, treat sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;”>Location: Ventura Police Department Police Training Room, 1425 Dowell Drive Ventura 93003
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The Ventura Police Department will hold a Community Meeting on the department’s approach to Vagrancy and Homelessness, Wednesday, May 18, 2016 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Ventura Police Department, Police Training Room. The purpose of the meeting is to educate the community on the Police Department’s efforts in addressing this community issue.
Safe and Clean public places are a high community priority. In November 2011, the City Council adopted the Safe and Clean Initiative to redirect limited City resources and utilize partnerships so that public places remain safe and clean for everyone to enjoy. In December 2012, the Ventura County Superior Court implemented a “Community Intervention Court,” designed to help chronic offenders, many of which may be homeless, with minor violations get out of the legal system, off the streets and into rehabilitation programs. Several participants have been helped off the streets through the work of this court. This is a real collaboration between the Ventura Police Department, the Ventura City Attorney, County Behavioral Health, the Public Defender’s Office, the District Attorney and the Superior Court.
The Ventura Police Department deploys a team of officers that engage in restorative policing, or street outreach, works diligently with chronic vagrancy offenders and/or displaced individuals, by uniting them with family or friends if they desire and/or getting them appropriate medical attention. The team also works closely with the County, social service agencies and faith-based organizations to support both “place-based” social services and supplements those services by assertive street outreach teams to reach service resistant individuals.
For more information about the Community Meeting on Vagrancy and Homelessness, contact Civic Engagement Specialist Ashley Bautista, 805-339-4317 or [email protected].
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Certainly, vagrants represent a real problem in the Ventura River area. They also affect both businesses in downtown Ventura and a real part of the crime in this City.