Newport Beach : Truancy Crackdown Back Despite Legal Questions
The Police Department’s crackdown on truants is back on course now that school is in session again, despite questions about its legality.
Police initiated “Operation: Back to School” last fall to try to reduce daytime crime, which they partly blamed on truants.
Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. William Bedsworth said this week that he believes police may be violating students’ constitutional rights by holding them without proof that they were truant. Bedsworth said he has asked the state Supreme Court to rule on the question.
Statistics compiled by police since the program began last fall indicate that residential burglaries decreased 25% during the months of October and November compared with the same period the year before, said Sgt. Paul Henisey.
Newport Beach police picked up 224 truants in those two months compared with 42 in the two months of the previous year.
Henisey said the program will proceed until the end of the school year or until the department receives any notification that it is illegal.
Truancy is not a crime, Henisey said. Students are held by police or taken back to their schools until parents pick them up, he said.
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