The Eureka Police Department POP unit is a busy one. Anyone who regularly follows the news, the EPD Facebook page reads the press releases has a general idea about the unit. Not every complaint filed or every investigation makes headlines. EPD, POP, CSET units are out every day and the difference can be seen on the streets and neighborhoods.
I reached out to EPD Chief Steve Watson with some questions about POP. In the future EPD may have a FAQ or additional information on their website. I would like to thank Chief Watson, Crime Analyst Brittany Powell and particularly Captain Brian Stephens who took the time to answer my questions in a very busy week with a quick turnaround.
What happens after a complaint is filed with the Eureka Police Department Problem Oriented Policing Team?
This really depends upon on the nature of the complaint. As an example: If someone calls the POP line with information about an abandoned car in a neighborhood the POP team may just forward the call to the Vehicle Abatement Team or they may put a tag on it then forwarded to the team or just tow it. If someone calls in a dilapidated property they may contact Code Enforcement and either forward the complaint to them to work on from a Code Enforcement approach or most likely they would do a site visit together to investigate the scope of the issue and work a collaborate approach to address the issues. Resolutions can range from a nuisance letter addressing the concerns, Code Enforcement violations addressed through citations and fines, to warrants fully abating the property and boarding them up. While most of the work concerning complaints of this nature are handled by Code Enforcement and POP there are times that other City Departments have resources that are very helpful to resolving issues. It is POP’s mission to work closely with all City Departments to resolve city issues and increase our community members quality of life.
More complex complaints received by POP are generally surrounding narcotic related issues taking place at a residence. Depending on how much information is received and can be confirmed by a POP detective the responses to these types of complaints can be swift or take months to investigate. There is no simple answer to how these types of complaints can be handled as the investigations are at times diverse. In the end, if a warrant or probation/parole search can’t be served at the residence the team will often make contact with the occupants and through a conversation put them on notice about their activities or perceived activities and often this will have an impact that helps the neighborhood/community.
POP is designed to be a Proactive Investigative Unit that addresses and solves problems in the city that have the greatest impact on both our residents, businesses, and visiting community members. POP has the latitude to use all the tools we have to approach and resolve problems and are encouraged to think outside the box of street level enforcement to address and resolve issues.
What is the process to evaluate the complaint?
I kind of answered this above. It depends upon the nature of the complaint. Often they will check for other similar complaints, do research through our computer systems to identify responsible parties, in a complaint such as a drug house, the occupants and owner of a residence, determine if those occupants have court ordered searches and round table an approach to deal with the situation. As stated above, sometimes they just refer the complaint to the most appropriate agency. POP is often the catch all unit for complaints so they often farm out complaints to other agency’s or units that are in a position to more appropriately handle the issue. Given the high number of complaints received and the limited number of detectives to address them, they have to prioritize complaints based on a wide spectrum of factors.
Why does it take so long to conduct an investigation or follow-up?
Fully staffed the EPD POP team is one (1) Sergeant and three (3) detectives. Currently, one detective is filling a role on patrol as a Field Training Officer so the team is down to just two detectives. This happens on a regular basis given the needs of the department. They receive hundreds of complaints a year. There often isn’t just enough time in the day to get to al the complaints. There is often a lot of research that goes into addressing some of these issues. Some, such as a large transient encampments may be able to be addressed in a week or two, securing the resources to address the issue. Others such as a nuisance property, may take weeks if not months to legally get to a resolution that can’t be seen and felt by the community. Narcotics investigations are complex and we have to meet the criteria set by law to obtain warrants or ensure we have grounds to conduct probation/parole searches. As a small unit, they have to have the personnel then to carry out these operations in a safe manner and that often requires assistance from internal personnel or from outside agencies. So it takes time to organize personnel and put together a safe plan to execute what needs to be done to address the issue.
How do you decide to refer complaints to another agency such as Code Enforcement?
It just depends on the complaint. If it is more appropriate to be handled by another agency then we refer it to that agency. We have a very positive working relationship with all our local agencies and partners and through our constant conversations and meetings we have a good understanding of the appropriate starting location for most complaints. Now, they sometimes come back to POP to work in collaboration with the other agency, but this frees up time for POP to address other issues in the meantime.
Stats are somewhat difficult to pull from a unit as POP as a lot of the work they do day in and day out doesn’t generate a case number or any written documentation. In January, Sergeant Rodrigo Reyna-Sanchez completed his three year tour as the POP Sergeant and Sergeant Greg Hill assumed that role. Each sergeant is given the flexibility to run the unit as they see fit, all under the guidance of the Investigations Captain. So stats change with the change in leadership. Here is an example of some of the work conducted during Sergeant Sanchez’s last year as the POP Sergeant. During 2019, POP was involved in approximately 1774 incidents, assisted in at least 144 abatement calls with Code Enforcement, assisted with towing and removing over 500 abandoned or non-operational vehicles. More than 20 properties were addressed during this year with Code Enforcement. More than 650,000 pounds of trash were removed from these nuisance properties. On top of these stats, the POP team served numerous warrants throughout the year, assisted our Criminal Investigation Sections with several major crime investigations and assisted patrol with calls for service. Here are some stats just from the first couple of months of 2020: Probation/Parole Searches: 28, Search Warrants Served: 9, Methamphetamine Seized: 430 grams, Heroin Seized: 69.5 grams, Narcotic Investigations Conducted: 12, Assists (DTF, PATROL, CIS, Code Enforcement): 40, Felony Arrests: 10, Misdemeanor Arrests: 15, Transient Camps Located: 61, Problem Houses Being Investigated: 39. Sergeant Hill is also heading up the Joint Agency Fugitive Apprehension team. He, along with his detectives, do research into the warrant subjects, coordinate the personnel and plan these operations. These operations are conducted with funds secured from the Humboldt County Community Corrections Partnership to address suspects who are violating their Post Release Community Supervision release as well as the back log of warrants and suspects the District Attorney’s office is working to bring to court to be held accountable for their crimes.
"I would continue to watch for press releases and other information we push out regarding our teams and use them to further the answers I provided below," added Captain Stephens.
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