Costa Mesa police launch bike patrol to fight drug influx, engage community
August 20, 2015, Orange County Register
The call to Costa Mesa police on Aug. 14 was typical: Two men were shooting heroin in broad daylight on the north side of Wilson Park.
But on this morning, the police response was different. Within four minutes, officers arrived on the scene quietly and undetected to arrest the suspects before they could toss their paraphernalia.
The newfound method of stealth?
Bicycles.
This week, Costa Mesa police launched a bicycle unit to patrol the city’s parks and business districts and improve “quality of life issues” – code for helping to sterilize an influx of hard-drug users and dealers and homeless encampments that have led residents to complain they no longer feel safe in some parts of the city.
“Bicycles can get into areas that (police cars) can’t,” said Sgt. Zach Hoferitza, who directs the bike unit. “Onto sidewalks, traversing parks, into alleys, through parking lots.”
The bike detail is similar to beat officers on foot patrol, adapted so police can roam quickly across Costa Mesa and adding an element of surprise to community policing. The goal is also similar to a foot beat: get to know neighbors, talk with business owners, be visible and patrol problem areas.
Oh yeah, and occasionally check that no one is smoking meth in the Albertson’s bathroom.
Police bicycle units are nothing new. Costa Mesa had one that ended 15 years ago. Newport Beach has officers on bikes cruising the city’s boardwalk and running paths. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department uses bicycles for special event support and to respond to calls on off-road trails.
But Costa Mesa’s new twice-a-week detail is more focused than prior iterations on homeless people and drug users – two somewhat distinct groups that Costa Mesa Police Chief Rob Sharpnack said are “becoming one and the same,” unlike in past years.
“We’re seeing a newer, younger, homeless population that are more aggressive, more frequently using and selling narcotics and also exhibiting a presence with stolen property and theft-related crimes,” said Sharpnack, who became chief July 1.
Through July, Costa Mesa has experienced a 45 percent rise in robberies, 38 percent increase in reported rapes, 43 percent jump in stolen vehicles, 45 percent surge in theft, 22 percent uptick in burglaries and 21 percent gain in aggravated assault, compared to the same time last year.
Sharpnack blames the swell on Proposition 47, which reduced California’s penalties for nonviolent crime, and AB 109, which helped parole non-violent offenders. Others have said Costa Mesa’s numerous sober living facilities have led to the influx of drug abusers.
On Tuesday, the bicycle detail’s third day of patrol, the officers approach a man lying facedown on the grass in Lyons Park .
“Are you OK?” Officer Trevor Jones asked. Yes, the man said. Are you homeless? Yes.
Jones wants to learn more. Are you originally from Costa Mesa? How did you become homeless?
It’s a survey of sorts.
“I couldn’t tell if you were sleeping or needed medical attention,” Jones explains to the man, searching through his belongings. “When we contact someone, it not always because they did something wrong.”
Tony Capitelli, a local homeless advocate, said there is a fine line between helping and harassing the homeless, but added that Costa Mesa police are respectful to that population.
“If the (bike) patrol is to drive those experiencing homelessness out of our city, that’s not something I’m for,” said Capitelli, a member of The Trellis churches consortium’s Costa Mesa Street Team created to build relationships with the local homeless population
“But if it’s to crack down on criminal activity in the park, that’s something I am for,” he said.
After the officers talk with the homeless man, the bike brigade mounts up and pedals off. Almost an hour later, they pull into the shopping center on the northeast corner of Harbor Boulevard and Wilson Street, where they immediately engage a woman who appears to have been sleeping on a grassy plot outside McDonalds. Had they arrested the woman for some reason, the officers would have called a patrol car to transport her back to the police station.
The bike officers move on to Starbucks, then Albertson’s, to introduce themselves to employees and explain the new detail’s role.
“There are (businesses) that normally won’t call us, but when we talk to them, we’ll find out about new issues,” Sgt. Hoferitza says. “It’s more difficult to engage (with the community) when you’re in a patrol car with your windows up.”
Officer Blythe explains that the shopping center has become a haven for homeless people and drug addicts since the city recently closed the public restrooms at nearby Wilson Park. In the wake of the closure, those groups have trickled over to the plaza to bathe or do drugs in the local business’ bathrooms.
Only 30 minutes prior, the officers had responded to a call at the center’s Albertson’s of a known local drug abuser throwing merchandise at customers before fleeing the store.
Zach Oliver has worked at the plaza’s Starbucks for two years and said he has noticed the change.
“Hard drug users – meth, heroin,” Oliver says. “We’ve found blood on the walls (of the store’s bathroom). Found a guy passed out on the floor.”
Oliver said he welcomes the new deployment because the officer will show up randomly instead of only when police are called.
“If they’re going to have a presence here, that could make a huge difference,” he said.
Shortly after chatting with the Starbucks employees, Officers Jones, Matt Pallo, and Zac Blythe are back on their bikes – pedaling through the center’s parking lot, weaving between cars and outpacing the lot’s snail-pace traffic.
And just as quickly and silently as they’ve cruised in, they’re gone.
BIKE PATROL BASICS
• Costa Mesa purchased four $1,000 Trek police bicycles for the new unit. The bikes are official emergency vehicles, so if officers flash the bicycles’ red-and-blue lights and blare their sirens, pedestrians and automobiles have to stop.
• The new bicycle unit pedaled out for its first shift Aug. 14. That day, the detail’s officers made five drug-related arrests, two warrant arrests, and issued 11 citations. The officers also spoke with 50 residents and handed out 30 badge stickers to children.
• Most of the officers assigned to the bike unit are also cyclists in their free time. The officers bike almost 10 miles per shift, which can last four to five hours.
• Costa Mesa police used to have a bicycle patrol unit, but ended it 15 years ago. CMPD decided renew the assignment as it continues to hire new officers into the understaffed department. The idea to revive the unit stemmed from a February meeting between top city and police officials, in which the group discussed ways to combat the influx of hard drugs to Costa Mesa’s parks and business districts.