Police hope to interact positively with community
By Betsy Avelar Staff Writer
Gilroy – Santa Claus is coming to town. And, he’ll be at San Ysidro Park Wednesday afternoon – taking a break from supervising his elves – and posing for free pictures with children, the first 450 of whom will receive a bag full of goodies.
In an effort to increase the park’s visibility as a safe place to visit after years with a reputation as a hang out for drug dealers, police and fire personnel will be on hand in a positive atmosphere.
“Back then the park had a really bad reputation. It was once plagued by gangs, drugs and criminal activity, so we we’re in a process of revitalizing the park image and retaking back the park,” said Rachel Muñoz Community Service Officer who is coordinating the event.
This is the 10th annual Santa Comes to San Ysidro Park event and according to Muñoz it keeps growing.
The effort to “reclaim” the park for the public underwent a number of stages. One included a community task force where residents brainstormed ways to make the park a safe place for the community to visit, and as a result, the city got involved and spent $400,000 to revitalize the park. This was a period of re-birth according to Muñoz.
“Now the city of Gilroy provides a pre-school program there, so MACSA occupies the park in afternoon and there’s presence in the park.” The city added an additional playground area, remodeled the park so families could feel safe and the police routinely patrol the park.
Since the park is now more family friendly – another reason to visit Santa – the fire and the police departments got involved to become more neighborhood-friendly and gain the community’s trust.
“We want them to feel like they have an inside to our department, to feel comfortable to call in criminal activity,” said Muñoz.
Nine times out of 10 police respond to negative situations so these community policing projects, where the community interacts with officers in a positive setting, is helpful in getting the public more comfortable around police and fire personnel, Muñoz said.
“Some families don’t have enough money to pay for a picture with Santa. The community donated money to have Polaroid pictures,” said Muñoz. “The whole thing is for fun.”
Betsy Avelar attends Gavilan College and is an intern for the Gilroy Dispatch. Reach her at 847-7216 or ba*****@************ch.com.
