Officers Larry Eklund and Jim Evans were deployed on high visibility patrol in Southwinds Park on Saturday, November 3. Indeed, this was “high” visibility patrol. Both officers were on horses, Clinton and J-J. This marked the first known neighborhood deployment of the Oxnard Police Department’s Mounted Unit. Jim Evans developed the game plan, namely crime prevention with an emphasis on positive resident interaction.

“My opinion of you has changed,” remarked one resident. Officer Evans had had many prior exchanges with this person and, somehow, seeing Jim on the horse changed everything. That was not the only positive encounter. Two teenage girls just couldn’t leave the horses alone. The two stood in front of the Southwinds Storefront petting and talking to the horses.

While public relations was certainly one reason for deploying the Mounted Unit, the mounted officers were also there to reduce crime. During the 6 hour deployment Officers Eklund and Evans wrote a motorist a citation for driving on a suspended license and towed his vehicle. They also arrested someone for peddling counterfeit DVDs.

On Friday, December 7 and 21, Officers Eklund and Evans were deployed to the “Shopping at the Rose” shopping center again for high visibility patrol. This time the focus was on theft prevention from the retail stores and in the parking lot. The officers worked two successful 6 hour deployments. In addition to the several contacts and photo opportunities with the public and businesses, they found time to locate and arrest a subject for an outstanding warrant.

Stay tuned for future deployments……

Since early 2000, the Oxnard Police Department has been conducting electronic fingerprinting services to the public. Since that time, the demand for this service has increased as legislation has become stricter in conducting background checks for licensing and employment. Where at one point it took several weeks to receive the results of a fingerprint background check, organizations can now receive State results as quickly as 24 hours from the time the fingerprints are submitted.

There are a variety of reasons why a person would need to have their fingerprints taken for background checks. Licensing agencies for real estate professionals, social service workers (for child and elderly care) and security guards are some examples that have strict guidelines one must pass before they are given the license. Government agencies and schools also require that background checks be on file before they can hire an individual. Police agencies are some of the strictest government agencies and must have a clearance through the Department of Justice, FBI, Child Abuse Index and a firearms clearance for police officers.

At the City of Oxnard, when applying for a permit, such as to drive a taxi, the applicant must first have a background check conducted through the electronic fingerprint process (live scan). Our local city ordinances dictate what offenses cannot be on one’s record before they are issued a permit. These offenses vary depending on permit. Background checks on individuals who are doing business within the city, such as door-to-door solicitors or street vendors, are conducted to keep our community safe. The Police Department receives notification of any arrests on anyone who holds an active permit and if the arresting offense makes them ineligible for the permit, they can have their permit revoked.

On Monday June 9th, Communications Training Coordinator Danah DeVries Palmer had the singular honor of being one of the training instructors for the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) Conference this year. She chose as her topic “How to Create an Awesome Quality Assurance Customer Service Program”.

Danah has been described as a “caffeinated cheerleader”. She specializes in high energy presentations on several topics including customer service and tactical communication. She is, of course, also quite interested in following through with quality assurance measurements guaranteeing dispatcher success.

Danah has a very full life and found that she had several commitments the weekend prior to her Monday class as well as the rest of the week. Therefore, in typical Danah style, she flew out of Burbank Airport at 9 p.m. Sunday night and arrived in Tampa, Florida at 7:30 on Monday. Since her class was not scheduled until 2 p.m., this gave her an opportunity to enjoy a few hours of the conference. After her class, she was scheduled to leave Tampa at 5 p.m. but was delayed for several hours by area lightning storms. She finally arrived home at 1:30 the following (Tuesday) morning. Of course, she was at a 9-1-1 Group meeting at 9 a.m. that same morning!

Her course was described as follows: “Does your agency have great customer service skills? Do your dispatchers provide quality service to all their customers? The answer is probably “I think so”, but can you prove it? Could they be even better? This presentation will provide an overview of how to put together a program that will show off the skills of telecommunicators, provide training where needed and improve the service provided to our customers.”

Danah was pivotal in renovating Oxnard Police/Fire Communications' Quality Assurance Program and continues to administer it. She shared with those in attendance how it was developed and implemented as well as the documents used to record and track performance. She covered the Customer Service Surveys that are sent out to the public for feedback and how our quality assurance committee was formed from Communications employees. How to deal with remediation and discipline was also addressed. Danah is a big supporter of recognizing good performance and uses the quality assurance program to spotlight that as well.

There were several attendees who were ready to learn and eagerly accepted the handouts Danah had prepared. She has already heard from some of them who are enthusiastic about developing their own program. Congratulations Danah for sharing such an important aspect of what we do to maintain our excellent service!

As a firearms owner, you are responsible for knowing how to properly handle your firearms in a safe manner in your home. Firearm accidents in the home can be prevented simply by making sure that firearms are kept unloaded and safely stored, with ammunition secured in a separate location and inaccessible to children. As a firearms owner, your most important responsibility is ensuring that children cannot encounter loaded firearms. In keeping a firearm in the home, whether it be for safety, hunting, or target shooting, your objective should be to have the firearm readily available to you, yet not accessible to others.

Accidents involving firearms in the home have decreased significantly over the last 20 years, according to the National Safety Council. The Oxnard Police Department would like to ensure that this downward trend continues. With the help of Project ChildSafe, which is a nationwide program whose purpose is to promote safe firearms handling and storage practices, the Oxnard Police Department will be distributing free gun locking devices. The locking devices are available at the Oxnard Police Department Property Room, 251 South “C” Street, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday Through Friday. The property room may also be reached at 805-385-7738 if you should have any questions.

The ChildSafe program is supported by a Department of Justice grant, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and is a component of Project Safe Neighborhoods. To find out more about the ChildSafe program, their website is http://projectchildsafe.com.

The Oxnard Police Department is proud to have recently added a special tribute to those employees that retired with honor from our organization. The main hallway of the second floor in the Public Safety Building is now lined with pictures and engraved nameplates of sworn officers and civilians who retired with honor after twenty years or more with the Oxnard Police Department. The second floor hallway has always had historical pictures from throughout the 100-year existence of the Oxnard Police Department but seemed to be lacking a direct tribute to our predecessors.

In the fall of 2007, members of the Professional Standards Division began compiling past photographs and contacting retired employees hoping they would provide pictures of themselves from their career with the Oxnard Police Department. We have received a tremendous response from our retirees who seem excited at the prospect of adding some much needed nostalgia to our hallways. It is fascinating for our employees, both young and old, to walk the hallway and not only inquire, “Who is that?”, but to see faces of old friends and reminisce about forgotten memories.

The final step in the completion of the honor wall will be a special tribute to all former Chiefs of Police with the Oxnard Police Department. We are busy putting the finishing touches on pictures of every single Chief that has ever graced the halls of the Oxnard Police Department. We look forward to the completion of this exciting project and invite anyone that visits the Oxnard Police Department to take a minute to “walk the hallway” and enjoy the memories generated by our new honor wall.

The Oxnard Police Department has provided their Dispatch and Records personnel with customer service training throughout the month of January. The training was designed to enhance and support those skills which are necessary for the public to have positive police interaction. The department recognizes that our personnel are often dealing with people in crisis and it is our responsibility to make their experience as positive as possible.

The training was an eight hour class which was provided on four different occasions. The class covered such topics as ways to place callers on hold, recognizing communication pitfalls such as voice inflection or attitude, providing positive explanations, recognizing body language and facial expressions and understanding public expectations.

The class was interactive and provided a forum for open discussion. The Public Safety Dispatchers and Records Personnel participated in customer service scenarios and surveys. The class also utilized lessons that have been learned from other agencies.

The Oxnard Police Department is dedicated to enhancing the interaction that every citizen has when they call 911, a business line or walk into our lobby. This training was a reminder to our personnel to treat everyone as if it was their own family member, to remember that there is always more to the story and to recognize that everyone is an individual with specialized needs.

On July 1, 2008, two new laws took effect regulating the use of cellular telephones by California drivers. Do you know what conduct is prohibited and how the law is different for drivers under the age of 18? Click here to view the actual California Vehicle Code pertaining to cell phone use behind the wheel along with common questions and answers, courtesy of the State of California Legislative Council and the California Department of Motor Vehicles respectively. The DMV has posted an excellent instructional video on cell phone use here.

INCIDENT:	Carjacking/ Attempt Murder
DATE/TIME:	01/31/08
LOCATION:	900 block of Cedar Ct., Oxnard
VICTIM/S:	Marceleno R. Vasquez, 23 years, Oxnard resident
SUSPECT/S:	Two Hispanic males armed with a knife, no further description
WITNESS/ES:
SUSPECT VEHICLE:	Unknown
LOSS:	Multiple stab wounds wound to the upper body
PREPARED BY:	Fred Sedillos, Sergeant, Violent Crimes Unit

 

DETAILS:

On 01/31/08 Patrol officers received a call of an injury accident in the 900 block of Elm Ct. Upon their arrival they discover the victim’s vehicle abandoned in the front yard of a private residence. The vehicle had collided with a chain link fence. An additional call was received of a battery victim at 920 Cedar Ct. Patrol officers discovered the victim suffering from stab wounds. He was transported to SJRMC by ambulance. The subsequent investigation revealed that the victim was assaulted in the 900 block of Cedar Ct while attempting to park his vehicle. The victim stated he was approached by two suspects. The suspects stabbed the victim and then stole his vehicle. For reasons unknown the suspects drove around the block to Elm Ct. where they crashed the vehicle and then fled. The victim suffered multiple stab wounds and his condition was described as serious.

 

 

ANYONE WITH INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT DET. Ken Peeples @ 486-6297. CALLERS CAN ALSO REMAIN ANONYMOUS BY CALLING 982-7043

 

For anyone that has ever worked for a law enforcement agency, they know that one of the necessary “evils” of applying for any job with a police department is the dreaded background investigation. Applicants are often intimidated and scared of the whole background process and often times these unnecessary fears lead to the omission of certain items that may not have been that big of a deal if they had just been listed in the background documents. The background process with the Oxnard Police Department is a straightforward process that is aimed at identifying the best candidates for each position.

Candidates for the position of Entry Level Police Officer (Public Safety Trainee) are first asked to complete a “Pre-Employment Questionnaire.” This is a 7-page document that gives us a snapshot of the candidate’s work history, education, drug and alcohol use, past criminal activity, and other items of interest. This document is used as a screening tool for the Department and allows us to identify those candidates that we wish to have continue in the background process. Those candidates that successfully pass that portion of the process are then asked to complete a P.O.S.T. Personal History Statement (PHS). This is a 30+ page document that asks candidates to provide detailed information on a wide range of areas in their life. This completed PHS is then given to a background investigator who conducts a 6-8 week investigation into all of the areas identified in the PHS. Candidates should expect to have their friends, family members, and neighbors contacted during this process (To view a copy of the PHS, please go to http://www.post.ca.gov/forms/2-251-phsPeaceOfficers.doc).

Upon the successful completion of the background investigation, the final phase of the background process is a polygraph examination. A licensed polygrapher will conduct an examination of each applicant which will include the review of various items in the background investigation. These polygraph examiners are highly-skilled and very knowledgable in the use of counter-measures by candidates to defeat polygraph examinations so candidates should not be deceptive in any manner during the examination. Upon successful completion of the polygraph examination, candidates will have successfully passed the background process and move one step closer to becoming an Oxnard Police Officer.

The areas in which candidates are most often disqualified from the application process are: Deception, Excessive Drug use, Poor Driving Record, and Past Criminal Behavior. While none of the latter three are automatic disqualifiers, Deception will always get you disqualified from the process. We encourage all candidates to be honest throughout the process. We would much rather be able to investigate and discuss a sensitive matter with a candidate than discover that they attempted to hide it or lie about it. There is zero tolerance for lying!!!

We encourage anyone interested in a career in law enforcement to apply for any of the various positions within the Oxnard Police Department. Please don’t ever let the fear of a background process hold you back. We work with all of the candidates to make it as painless and easy as possible.

INCIDENT:	Arrest of Homicide Suspect
DATE/TIME:	1-28-2008 / 1700 hours
LOCATION:	800 S. Victoria Ave. Ventura County Jail
VICTIM/S:	Octavio Lopez, 29 Years
SUSPECT/S:	Alejandro “Alex” Salas, 25 years, Oxnard Resident
PREPARED BY:	Sergeant Jim Seitz, Major Crimes Supervisor

 

DETAILS: Detectives from the Oxnard Police Department arrested a third suspect in the 2006 murder of Octavio Lopez and attempted murder of three additional individuals who suffered gunshot wounds during the September 4, 2006 attack. Twenty Five (25) year old Alejandro “Alex” Salas was arrested Monday afternoon at the Ventura County Jail where he was in custody for a Parole violation.

 

Salas is the third person who has been arrested for the murder of Lopez and attempted murder of the three other individuals who suffered gunshot wounds during the attack. Brothers Lino, 25 years, and Alvino Hernandez, 27 years were arrested for murder on January 18, 2008. Detectives have reason to believe that several additional people have conspired to try and create an alibi for Salas’s whereabouts at the time of the shooting. The investigation is continuing with the possibility of additional arrests of those people who continue to be untruthful with detectives.