GILROY
– The Gilroy Police Department is utilizing a collaboration of
local property owners to take new measures in an effort to halt
rising gang activity on East Eighth Street – including empowering
property owners with the right to evict tenants who violate a new
trespassing/loitering policy.
GILROY – The Gilroy Police Department is utilizing a collaboration of local property owners to take new measures in an effort to halt rising gang activity on East Eighth Street – including empowering property owners with the right to evict tenants who violate a new trespassing/loitering policy.
More than 100 residents of the 400 and 500 blocks of East Eighth Street will receive a letter from their landlords this week explaining the GPD’s plan to initiate its STOP (Stop Trespassing on Public Property) program.
STOP essentially gives the police department permission from the property owners of five large apartment complexes on East Eighth Street to make contact with citizens on the private apartment grounds without contacting the property owner first. It will also allow police to arrest non-tenants for trespassing or loitering on the grounds. If tenants or their associates are found to be multiple violators of the new policy, they can even be evicted.
Households relying on government housing subsidy that are reported by property owners or police for violating the trespassing laws will also be in danger of losing their financial aid.
The program was used by the GPD in neighborhoods throughout the city at the peak of its gang violence in the early 1990s, and similar programs have been used in several cities in California where gang crime has been a problem. Stiffening the penalties of trespassing and loitering for tenants has been an effective way to calm criminal activity, according to the GPD.
“This allows us to interview people and keep tabs on the area,” said Rachel Muñoz, the community service officer with the GPD who organized a meeting with the GPD and seven property owners on East Eighth Street on Oct. 23 to discuss the increased gang activity in the area.
“Without the property owner’s permission we need to contact them every time we see people loitering or trespassing,” Muñoz said. “The hope is that STOP will establish a relationship between the police, property owners, tenants and apartment managers to work together and come up with solutions to criminal activity in the area.”
Starting last week, several of the property owners of the apartment complexes being targeted on East Eighth Street began to erect several 18-by-24-inch “No Trespassing/No Loitering” signs at the main entrances of their properties.
The implementation of the program comes following a gang-related shooting in the 400 block of East Eighth Street on Oct. 13, and months of rising tensions between rival gangs in the densely populated area, according to police.
Enforcing strict no trespassing laws to keep gang members and others from loitering is essential to protect the “99 percent” of good tenants who live in the area, said one property owner in the area who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from tenants.
“The property owners want this problem solved as soon as possible because it’s causing good tenants to move,” said the owner, who worked with police to institute a similar program at a property he owned in San Jose. “What this does is make the neighborhood safe for everyone, and if the few tenants that are causing problems don’t change their ways they will be given their 30-day notice. It worked in San Jose, and I think it will work here – but it takes a commitment from all of the owners.”
While many of the property owners of the highlighted area on East Eighth Street live as far away as Fremont and San Jose, their cooperation with the STOP program will allow the police to monitor their property and protect their tenants from crime, said Sgt. Greg Flippo of the GPD’s Anti-Crime Team.
“For the most part the people causing the problems in this area aren’t even tenants – they just come to hang out here because they have a friend who lives here,” Flippo said. “Now we can contact these people and get them out of there. We have been trying to figure out why gang tensions seem to be coming to a head in this area – this should help us sort some things out.”
A few suspected gang members and their families on East Eighth Street have already been warned by property owners that if they continue to loiter they will be evicted, but it will take the effort of the entire community to reach the GPD’s goal, Muñoz said.
“The landlords, tenants and the community as a whole need to make the point that this type of behavior is not acceptable,” she said. “The GPD doesn’t have a crystal ball to see what’s going on at all times. Mothers and fathers need to take responsibility of their children who might be in gangs to ensure the safety of their neighbors. If you kid is wearing blue and red every day it should be pretty obvious.”
