Chief's Community Update - August 6, 2023
Thank you for visiting our website and taking a moment to read this community update.
Wanted
We are asking for your help to locate Juan Tapiz Ortiz, a 46-year-old East Palo Alto resident, who is wanted for entering a home and committing a sexual assault on June 3, 2023. Please use the below link to access additional information.
ci.east-palo-alto.ca.us/police/page/wanted-sexual-assault
On July 24, I personally had to respond to an in-progress service call on the 900 block of Weeks Street to assist the Sergeant and Officer who were already on their way. Additionally a Detective quickly left his desk, donned some safety equipment, and responded to the call as well. Due to staffing challenges, one Officer with an arrest, and one Officer handling responsibilities out of town, we dropped down to a single Officer and Sergeant to cover all service calls in East Palo Alto. That staffing is not sufficient for certain calls. In those instances, safety for everyone involved becomes jeopardized.
We are actively working to fill our vacancies. We attended the Ravenswood Health Fair on Saturday and found we have a lot of our community members interested in becoming East Palo Alto Police Officers! Our open recruitment can be found at https://www.calopps.org/city-of-east-palo-alto.
Parking Enforcement
Parking along rolled curbs has been a subject of discussion spanning several years. In our Gardens neighborhood, rolled curbs are especially prevalent. Many cars parking along the curb, park on the sidewalk for various reasons. Our City Engineers recently published information on our City website, educating everyone of the proper and legal way to park along rolled curbs.
We, our community, need to park properly along rolled curbs in our city. Our Police Department will spend some time on an education campaign to gain voluntary compliance from people parking along these curbs. After the education campaign, we will start enforcement efforts with parking citations. Ideally, we will not have to issue any parking citations because all vehicles will be parked legally.
National Night Out
Thank you for everyone who hosted and/or attended one of the thirteen National Night Out block parties. The event was a tremendous success with neighbors, first responders, and City Staff getting together and building relationships. Don’t forget to add #epanightout23 to your NNO social media posts so we can share in some of your successful events.
If you missed out this year, please join us next year for another opportunity. To view a highlight reel of our National Night Out 2023 (#epanightout23) please take a moment to visit our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/p/CvfdN4wpGx4/?next=%2F.
Mental Health
I added a page on our Police Department website with a link to the 9-8-8 suicide prevention and mental health crisis line. People in crisis can call or text 9-8-8 and access resources which hopefully prevent them for experiencing harm. Resources can also be accessed by visiting the website https://988lifeline.org/.
Anonymous tips and immediate service
We appreciate all the anonymous tips we have been receiving. It is important to note that anonymous tips are not a resource for immediate police response as it is not monitored 24/7. For immediate police response, either call 9-1-1 or our non-emergency phone number 650-321-1112. For complaints related to property violations, please contact Code Enforcement department, which operates under our building department (https://www.cityofepa.org/building/page/code-enforcement).
When providing information to the police, we need specific information about the crime or criminal. As an example, if you are reporting someone for dealing drugs, we need to know:
- where and when they are selling the drugs
- a detailed description of them (white female, blue jeans, red jacket, baseball cap)
- any description of a vehicle
- any other information you have about the crime.
While we don’t expect you to jeopardize your safety to get this information, it is very important information if we make an arrest. Not only will your tip provide us with accurate information about the suspect, but we are also able to serve as a witness to the crime and we can testify in court. Please use these options for providing an anonymous tip.
You can make an anonymous tip to the police by calling or texting to (650) 409-6792.
If there is a topic you would like addressed in the next update, please feel free to send an email at jliu@cityofepa.org.
Thank you,
Jeff Liu
Chief of Police
