TO: PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE,
AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT
COMMITTEE
FROM: Anthony Mata
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: September 29, 2022
Approved Date
SUBJECT: UTILIZATION OF FUNDS FOR RE-ARRESTING HIGH-RISK
INDIVIDUALS STATUS REPORT
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the status report on the utilization of funds for re-arresting high-risk individuals.
BACKGROUND
On March 15, 2022, the City Council approved the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Mayor’s March Budget Message.
1 The March Budget Message outlined Public Safety priorities, which included Re-Arresting Defendants Who Have Failed to Appear Post-Release. As a result, the City Manager proposed and the City Council approved one-time funding in the amount of $300,000 through the 2022-2023 Operating Budget for additional overtime to re-arrest criminal defendants who failed to appear on their warrants, with priority given to those defendants who face the most serious and violent felony charges or were previously convicted for the most serious and violent felonies.2
The San José Police Department’s (Department) primary mission is to promote public safety.
One way to meet this goal is with proactive enforcement strategies that often result in the apprehension of violent offenders through in-field and follow-up investigations. Despite being thorough in the preliminary investigation, often coordinating with the District Attorney’s Office and other law enforcement partners for the purpose of successful prosecution, those arrested may be released from custody by Superior Court after a review by Pre-Trial Services. The arrestee may be released with or without bail prior to arraignment based on the review and analysis of 1 Details from this meeting may be found here:
https://sanjose.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=931130&GUID=8C4AAF4E-9115-4D44-8427- 9D3A1BC05240
2 https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/85306/637872629004770000 PSFSS COMMITTEE: 10/20/2022
ITEM: (d)1
10/13/2022
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE SUBJECT: Utilization of Funds for Re-Arresting High-Risk Individuals September 29, 2022
this judicial process. If, after release, an arrestee fails to appear in court for a scheduled appearance, a bench warrant is issued for the re-arrest of the individual. Unfortunately, a subset of these persons may have a violent criminal history coupled with violence-related, pending charges. The San José Police Department prioritizes this subset for re-arrest.
Interagency Coordination on Process Improvements
Over recent months, the Department has engaged with criminal justice system stakeholders to improve communication within the booking and bail-setting process, with the goal of ensuring that decisions on the release of arrestees are in keeping with their potential risk to public safety.
On August 23, 2022, along with the City Manager’s Office, the Department hosted a meeting with the District Attorney’s Office, the Santa Clara County Sherriff’s Office, the County Executive’s Office, and multiple County departments to discuss potential process improvements.
At this meeting, stakeholders identified opportunities for improvements to the booking process to ensure that relevant information about the arrestee is transmitted from the arresting officer to other process participants, to ensure that all relevant information is accounted for in pretrial release decisions. In particular, participants identified the need for improvements to the felony affidavit form filled out by arresting officers to provide clear guidance to officers on what information should be included on the form, as well as additional training for San José officers to support the implementation of the new form.
Staff reported out on these discussions at a September 8, 2022 joint meeting between the Public Safety, Finance, and Strategic Support Committee and the County of Santa Clara Public Safety and Justice Committee.3Implementing the identified process improvements will require continued collaboration with relevant stakeholders. The Department is continuing to follow-up with the District Attorney’s Office, the Sherriff’s Office, and other stakeholders as necessary to facilitate the implementation of the improvements.
ANALYSIS
Implementation Overview
The San José Police Department’s Duty Manual has policies that codify how and when a wanted violent felon may be apprehended.4 Threat assessment criteria in Duty Manual section L 3812, Precautions Prior to Serving Search Warrants, establish the benchmark by which specialty units within the Department must be contacted for the apprehension; specifically, units within the Bureau of Field Operations (BFO) Special Operations Division and the Bureau of Investigations (BOI) Covert Response Unit (CRU). These units have specialty equipment, training, and experience that align with best practices and industry standards for the safe apprehension of violent felons.
3 Details from this meeting may be found here:
https://sanjose.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=995672&GUID=32C70889-53CB-4E00-8D07-C51966E09864 4 https://www.sjpd.org/home/showdocument?id=314
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE SUBJECT: Utilization of Funds for Re-Arresting High-Risk Individuals September 29, 2022
Although the process by which each unit conducts pre-operation planning, intelligence gathering, and dynamic and static tactics varies from operation to operation, both units often utilize similar methodologies, and each has slightly divergent expertise with certain tools and tactics.
Regardless of which unit is tasked with an apprehension, each takes the time and steps necessary to plan a safe arrest that utilizes force only when absolutely necessary in the defense of the public or the officers conducting the apprehension. Importantly, the person to be apprehended and the needs of the individual operation dictate which unit is tasked with the apprehension.
BFO Special Operations and CRU have the capacity to work additional overtime to accomplish apprehensions as directed through the $300,000 budget allocation. In addition, officers who previously worked in these units and have the requisite skills to undertake apprehensions, but who now work elsewhere in BOI or on Patrol, will be able to participate in apprehensions on an overtime basis through Council-approved funding. Consistent with the Council direction, this overtime capacity will be used to apprehend defendants who have been released pre-trial, but who are now wanted, with a focus on “those defendants who face the most serious and violent felony charges or have been previously convicted for the most serious and violent felonies.” To gauge success in implementing this direction, the Department will track apprehensions that accomplish this goal, as described in the “Cost Analysis and Outcome Tracking” section below.
The funding will be shared between BFO and BOI based on the needs of individual apprehensions.
Operational Approach
This section describes how the Department intends to coordinate to meet the Council’s budget directive, as well as the steps necessary for a safe and successful apprehension.
Each operation conducted is time-intensive and involves not only performing the apprehension but also extensive pre-planning and surveillance to help ensure the safety of officers and the offender. Once assigned the task of apprehending a violent or repeat offender, officers meet with the detective from the investigative unit originally assigned the case to gather all information.
Officers ensure an arrest or Ramey warrant5exists and all necessary search warrants have been signed by a judge. Officers then conduct a thorough background and investigation on the offender, and complete an operational plan, which includes, but is not limited to, the following:
a) checking all law enforcement databases; b) reading crime reports; c) conducting complete history checks on the suspect and associated address; d) conducting complete history checks on acquaintances and family members; e) reaching out to other San José Police Department units and outside agencies for cases involving the suspect; f) conducting full social media checks; and g) checking property information. Officers then conduct pre-operation surveillance to verify the address(es) of the offender. This becomes especially important if a search warrant is to be served in conjunction with the arrest of the offender. Once intelligence has been gathered, a detailed operation plan must be assembled outlining safety concerns and contingencies. On the day of the 5 A Ramey warrant is an arrest warrant issued by a judge before a complaint is filed by the District Attorney’s Office.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE SUBJECT: Utilization of Funds for Re-Arresting High-Risk Individuals September 29, 2022
operation, officers conduct surveillance to locate the offender and utilize appropriate tactics to take them into custody. Each operation is often dictated by the schedule of the offender and the apprehension can therefore range in the timeframe from just a few hours to several days, or occasionally much longer.
There are several units within BFO Special Operations Division tasked with the apprehension of violent offenders. A detailed threat analysis will determine which unit will undertake apprehension efforts. The most violent of offenders that present the highest threat level are assigned to the Mobile Emergency Response Group and Equipment (M.E.R.G.E.) Unit.
Members of the Special Operations Division coordinate daily with detectives from BOI. Priority is always given to violent offenders that have active arrest or bench warrants. BFO Special Operations will continue this coordination and generate weekly reports on violent offenders who have active felony warrants. Special Operations will coordinate with CRU to prevent overlapping investigations and duplication of apprehension efforts.
Example Case Study
Recently, CRU officers apprehended an offender who met threat assessment criteria—who “faced the most serious and violent felony charges and had been previously convicted for the most serious and violent felonies.” The suspect was a career criminal with prior convictions of domestic violence, unlawful weapon possession, battery, evading arrest, resisting arrest, burglary, theft, reckless driving, vandalism, and various narcotic-related offenses, including narcotic sales. The offender was recently responsible for a crime spree spanning several months, involving over two dozen burglaries of closed businesses and stealing their ATM machines. The offender also cut off his ankle monitor and violated the terms of his probation. He had two felony warrants for his arrest: one for a probation violation warrant and one bench warrant for not appearing in court on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, burglary, vandalism, and vehicle theft. The suspect was released from custody and an investigative unit noticed an uptick in commercial burglaries being committed with similar methods and characteristics to that of the offender.
As a result, the investigative unit reached out to CRU to re-arrest the offender. CRU coordinated with that investigative unit and conducted the background checks, prepared an operational plan, and established physical surveillance at the suspect’s known location. After several hours, CRU officers were able to apprehend the suspect without incident. CRU officers then served a search warrant at the suspect’s location, where officers located additional evidence linking the suspect to recent burglaries and thefts. The suspect was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail for the outstanding warrants, as well as several new charges. Overall, the full operation took 13 CRU officers approximately 208 hours in total to apprehend the suspect.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE SUBJECT: Utilization of Funds for Re-Arresting High-Risk Individuals September 29, 2022
Cost Analysis and Outcome Tracking
Each operation requires a full team of officers and depending on the situation often two teams, to conduct safe surveillance and apprehensions. The cost for one operation can vary greatly depending on the distinct behaviors of the offender and the difficulty in surveillance. In the example noted above, CRU spent approximately 208 hours in total to apprehend the person; the estimated personnel cost was $25,400. This case was relatively short, as the individual was already known to CRU and did not require extended surveillance; however, more typically when looking for high-risk individuals it could take several days before an apprehension. Another similar case took over six days of surveillance and working intelligence before a successful apprehension; cost estimates for this latter apprehension exceeded $142,000 in only personnel costs. Importantly, these costs do not include technology, equipment, and incidental costs associated with each operation, which may drive the final cost higher.
Each apprehension is unique, with varying challenges, personnel and equipment needs, and incurred costs. For this reason, it is difficult to predict with certainty how many apprehensions may be conducted with the allocated funds. To ensure that the results of this effort are tracked and understood, all apprehension efforts falling within the directive of the Mayor’s Budget Message will be tracked, along with personnel costs associated with each, to provide a baseline understanding of how many people fall into this category within a defined period, what costs are associated, on average, with re-arresting criminal defendants who have been released pre-trail and are now wanted, with priority given to those defendants who face the most serious and violent felony charges or were previously convicted for the most serious and violent felonies.
Data tracked will include the quantity of arrests, total hours for the investigations, cost, pending charges, and criminal histories.
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW UP
The Department will report back to the City Council with the results of the utilization of funds for re-arresting high-risk individuals through an Informational Memorandum upon exhaustion of the funds.
COORDINATION
This memorandum has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office and the City Manager’s Budget Office.
/s/
Anthony Mata
Chief of Police
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE SUBJECT: Utilization of Funds for Re-Arresting High-Risk Individuals September 29, 2022
For questions, please contact Deputy Chief Brian Shab, San José Police Department, Bureau of Field Operations at (408) 537-3880.