Unarmed security guards to patrol downtown Oceanside
Oceanside CA October 3 2022
Unarmed security guards will patrol Oceanside’s downtown, beachfront and Civic Center neighborhoods starting this weekend in a one-year pilot program approved under the city’s Measure X spending plan.
The City Council allocated $1.33 million Wednesday for a contract with MainStreet Oceanside to employ four trained security guards seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The guards will patrol problem areas with vehicles, bicycles and on foot.
“The city has seen a significant increase in complaints of crime in these areas, and increasing security will improve the quality of life and safety for Oceanside residents, businesses and visitors,” states a report from the city manager’s office.
Many of the complaints involve homeless persons, whose numbers continue to increase in downtown Oceanside.
One South Coast Highway restaurant owner, Kevin Shin, told the council Wednesday he and his employees have been threatened and attacked by transients. An increasing amount of his time is spent dealing with the situation around his business.
“Give us a good, safe place so that we can survive and grow in this community,” Shin said.
The city has taken significant steps to help people on the street, but more needs to be done, said Oceanside Chamber of Commerce CEO Scott Ashton.
“We have an abundance of opportunities for those who are willing to accept help,” Ashton said. “The next step is to address those who refuse help … I have no doubt this is a way to make our streets safer.”
In addition to providing security, the guards will “assist vulnerable populations in connecting with resources”, the city report states.
The security guards will augment the police presence in areas where officers are busiest, said Police Chief Fred Armijo.
“You have the presence of some level of authority that will make it less suitable for offenders to stick around,” Armijo said.
When necessary, the security guards will detain people under a citizen’s arrest until officers arrive to take control, he said. They will work with police to address issues such as trespassing, illegal camping and littering, and will appear in court to testify when needed.
MainStreet Oceanside will contract with Gatekeepers Security Services, Inc., a company that specializes in reducing urban crime, to hire the security officers.
Services will be concentrated within the city’s “property and business improvement district,” which the city formed in 2019 and is managed by the MainStreet organization.
Oceanside voters approved Measure X in November 2018, a seven-year, half-cent sales tax hike specifically to pay for improved public safety, aid for the homeless, road repairs and other infrastructure needs.
Funding for the security guards is new in the city’s Measure X Year 4 spending plan for fiscal 2022-23.
Also approved in the Measure X Year 4 spending plan is an allocation of $828,000 to create a paramedic squad that will handle “lower acuity calls” in the city’s downtown and coastal core. The new squad is intended to reduce the high number of calls handled by firefighter-paramedics at the city’s downtown Fire Station No. 1.
Measure X Year 4 spending also includes $2 million to begin design work for the Police Department’s new headquarters building, which will be constructed on land the city owns along Rancho Del Oro Road across from El Corazon Park. The new building would replace the headquarters now in two former strip mall retail stores on Mission Avenue just east of El Camino Real.
Excluded from Year 4 funding is money for the sobering center that the city opened in late 2020.
“We are recommending to wind it down and direct the money to the motel voucher program,” Assistant City Manager Michael Gossman said Wednesday.
The sobering center provided an overnight stay for people with drug and alcohol problems, with access to services they might need, and it saved police officers the time needed to take them to Vista for booking at the jail. However, because the center only helped an average of 17 people a month, it proved to be ineffective, Gossman.
The motel voucher program will get $617,000 including the sobering center’s allocation in the Measure X Year 4 budget. Oceanside started its voucher program in April 2021, and it handles an average of 43.5 clients a month.
In all, Year 4 of Measure X includes more than $27 million in spending for police services, a community gang diversion program, homelessness prevention efforts, and infrastructure work including road repairs and traffic calming measures.
