Chief's Community Update - July 9, 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
Parking Enforcement
Recently, I received a complaint about our parking hotline and online parking complaint submission platform. After conducting some research, I found our hotline got disabled when we migrated from AT&T phone lines to the Microsoft Team VOIP solution. We not only reactivated the hotline but enhanced it. With AT&T, someone had the physically check the hotline every day and write down the parking complaints. With our new solution, when someone leaves a voicemail on the hotline, the recording is automatically transcribed and emailed to all CSO’s and Commander Carson with the audio file attached.
I checked our website and found we did not actually have a parking complaint submission platform. I did a little amateur web mastering and updated our website for parking complaints, redirecting people to leave a voicemail on the hotline or sending an email to the CSO group.
On our City website home page, we have a section entitled “I want to” which contains some frequently requested services. We should be adding “Report a parking complaint” to the list of options which will redirect users to our parking complaint page.
Parking enforcement:
Hotline: 650-853-5940
Email: parkingenforcement@cityofepa.org
Fireworks
On July 4, three patrol teams including a Commander and myself increased patrols in East Palo Alto and proactively responded to fireworks activity in addition to standard calls for service. In the 6-hour period between 7:00 PM and 1:00 AM, we handled 152 calls for service while seizing illegal fireworks. There is no question fireworks are dangerous and harmful to many in our community. Media reports over the last couple weeks described fires and injuries in other cities resulting from fireworks. Luckily, we did not experience the same this year.
Using information garnered from our community discussions, data from the fireworks survey, and the power of community collaboration, we will work toward a new approach to reducing fireworks in our community beginning in the end of January 2024.
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
