Complaints Prompted Sweeps, Officer Testifies

In a hearing to determine whether to drop charges against 22 homeless people arrested in two roundups last summer at the Civic Center, a police supervisor testified Thursday that the effort was no different than such police operations as prostitution sweeps.

During testimony before Municipal Judge B. Tam Nomoto, Santa Ana Police Lt. Collie Provence said the police initiated two roundups at the Civic Center in August to lower the number of property thefts in the area.

Provence said the roundups, dubbed Operation Civic Center, were similar to other police operations against drug dealers and prostitutes.

During the hearing, attorneys produced a memo from Provence indicating that he had received complaints that prompted the sweeps. Three weeks before the first roundup on Aug. 15, Provence wrote that he had received numerous reports from Civic Center employees of troubles with the homeless population that frequents the downtown area.

“These complaints range from being physically accosted in the parking lots by transients, urination and defecation occurring in public, having their cars vandalized, their cars stolen, and their cars burglarized,” Provence wrote in the memo.

But attorneys for the 22 homeless defendants disputed Provence’s contention and questioned why the majority of those arrested were charged with littering, though Operation Civic Center was intended to reduce crimes against property. The second highest number of citations was for jaywalking.

“The homeless were cuffed and stuffed into patrol cars,” said attorney Ed Connor. “Not one of them were charged with property crimes.”

Attorneys for the homeless called on Louis Reiter, a retired Los Angeles deputy police chief, as an expert witness on police techniques. Reiter testified that he thought the police tactics used in Operation Civic Center were “calculated to punish the homeless.”

The hearing will continue today.