Santa Ana Police Take Aim at Center Park’s Blight of Crime

Center Park in Santa Ana is the last place you would want to go for a Sunday picnic.

The grass is muddy. The soccer field is a dirt wasteland. Men sit and drink at splintering picnic tables and small groups of vagrants cluster at the park’s edges--where drugs are sold like flowers at a freeway off-ramp.

The Police Department, which has received numerous complaints from businesses in the area, is out to clean up the park. Since Friday, police have arrested 80 people in and around the park, most of them on drug trafficking charges after they allegedly sold cocaine, heroin or syringes to undercover officers.

Enforcement Drive

On Tuesday, police began what they promise will be high-visibility enforcement in the park at 1st and Center streets on the west side of the city. Starting before 9 a.m., officers both in patrol cars and on foot worked the area, stopping to question several people and ordering groups of vagrants to disperse.

“We’re not talking about the homeless here,” said Police Chief Clyde L. Cronkhite, who drove out to the park Tuesday morning for a press conference to publicize the campaign. “We’re talking about people who, yes, do live on the street, but who break the law.”

Lt. Bruce R. Carlson, police commander for the area that includes the park, said about 20 of the 80 people arrested told police that they live in the park.

Mayor Dan Young, who was also at the news conference, said the drug arrests and increased police presence are part of an effort “so that when people come to any park in the city . . . they’ll be free of any drug activity. We’re going to stay here as long as it takes.”

Separate Effort

The police effort is separate from the city’s controversial policy of having maintenance crews discard homeless people’s belongings if they are left unattended on public property, Cronkhite said. “Our effort is focused on those people who are breaking the law,” he said.

Some of the people ordered by police to disperse Tuesday morning hid their belongings in trash cans below fresh plastic liners so they would not be confiscated before leaving the park.

Several businessmen in the area said they are pleased to see the city finally doing something in response to their complaints. “We felt it was deteriorating, now apparently we’re getting some action,” said Fred Vuittonet, owner of Del Ray Chrome on Center Street. “I found myself apologizing to my customers because things were so bad.”

Vuittonet said the park is the site of blatant prostitution, as well as drug trafficking. Gina Altobelli, manager of nearby Pacific Glass Industries, showed pictures of the mess left by vagrants who camp out there at night. “Look at that--that’s their bathroom,” she said.

Even with the aggressive police action, Center Park is unlikely to turn into a garden spot anytime soon. It is next to the Orange County Rescue Mission and state and county welfare offices, making it a magnet for the down-and-out.

Across 1st Street is a large thrift shop where homeless people buy blankets, clothing and shoes. And then there is the employment office for casual laborers, a dreary room filled with men reading newspapers or sleeping in their chairs while they wait for a job to come along that will put a few dollars in their pockets.

Several men who sleep in front of a building near the employment office have complained recently that police have been overly aggressive in their efforts to clean up the area. They say that over the weekend, an officer awoke them and sprayed Mace in their faces for no reason and ordered them to leave.

Willie Broach, a 37-year-old janitor who works for Goodwill, said he was sprayed with Mace about 11 p.m. Sunday night. “It just got me on the face and it burned.”

A man who only give his name as “Shorty” said he also was sprayed by an unidentified police officer. “I got it the worst. I got it in both eyes and in the face.”

Police Lt. Carlson said the department had only heard about the alleged incident secondhand but that it is being investigated.

Times staff writer Laura Kurtzman contributed to this story.