Police Offer Data to Check Out Tenants

Hoping to keep convicted criminals out of low-income apartments, the Oxnard Police Department is poised to give the city’s Housing Authority access to its far-reaching computerized database of court records.

Housing officials, who now rely on prospective tenants to disclose criminal histories on application forms, would use the information to screen out potential troublemakers. Police Chief Harold Hurtt described the arrangement--expected to be in final form within a week--as the latest effort to pool resources to fight crime in Oxnard’s poorer neighborhoods.

“People have the perception that Oxnard is a haven for crime,” Hurtt said. “We’re going to change that perception.”

The move comes as Oxnard, like many communities across the nation, implements provisions of the 1996 federal “one-strike and-you’re-out” public housing policy.

The federal guidelines encourage housing programs to aggressively weed out criminals with tools such as criminal background searches. They also authorize evictions of anyone committing violent or drug-related crimes in public housing.

Local housing officials have wrestled with how to effectively conduct background checks. Up until now, Oxnard officials sifted through local courthouse files if an applicant volunteered information about criminal activity. Under the new arrangement, they would use the Police Department’s database, which is linked to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s criminal records system at the National Crime Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Police detectives use the tool in criminal investigations. Housing officials would use it to search for information on all applicants for one of the city’s 780 subsidized apartment units. There are about 120 openings a year.

The policy would not affect Section 8 certificate holders in Oxnard, who are screened by private property owners, officials said. The federal Section 8 program provides rental subsidies for low-income tenants.

The Area Housing Authority of Ventura County, which covers six county cities, already uses county court databases to do background checks on applicants for its 300 apartment units. Officials from the county authority will meet with Oxnard housing officials this week to learn more about the city’s new criminal screening process. They hope to strike a similar deal with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

“Most housing authorities are trying to do something along these lines,” said Doug Tapking, director of the county authority. “Oxnard’s really leading the way with this, and I think it’s wonderful.”

Housing authorities in the cities of Ventura, Santa Paula and Port Hueneme use either county court records to screen applicants or rely on applicants themselves to divulge their criminal histories.

The new Oxnard program has drawn the interest of the Los Angeles-based Fair Housing Institute. The organization has asked to be involved in Oxnard’s screening process.

“It’s a concern that this kind of screening isn’t a blanket exclusion,” said Tanya Nathan, an attorney for the organization. “I hope it’s just a factor in the decision.”

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Other activists cautioned that Oxnard’s new system could be riddled with snafus.

“My name is extremely common,” said Carmen Ramirez, executive director of the Channel Counties Legal Services. “I could have been charged with crimes I didn’t have anything to do with.”

Ramirez noted the system reflects the growing use of computers in law enforcement.

“It is a trend, computerization,” Ramirez said. “Know everything you can about a person’s identity. There are some positive aspects, but there are opportunities for abuse.” Alan Holmberg, the Oxnard attorney who helped draft the agreement, said if housing officials are investigating a violation of California law, only records of felony convictions will be released by police.

Records on both federal felony and misdemeanor convictions will be released, he said. The information will be limited to court convictions; arrest records will not be made available.

The attorney said the new system complies with state and federal laws that address information sharing between police and housing departments. State law restricts the type of felony information that can be given to housing officials by police to violent and other serious crimes, Holmberg said. If an applicant has been convicted of a federal crime, records will also be released.

The law provides that applicants can request a copy of the criminal record and dispute its use with housing officials. Such procedures allow applicants to contest snafus such as mistaken identity, Holmberg said. Once a decision has been made, the records are to be destroyed.

“I’d like to know if the guy who moved in next to me has been involved in violent crimes,” Holmberg said. “If one had the resources, the time, the effort, you can find the criminal conviction of an individual. But having the time and resources is another question.

“It’s very difficult for a housing authority to make that kind of investigation. Law enforcement has that data. It’s their business.”

Oxnard Housing Authority Director Sal Gonzalez said the new policy should cut down on evictions. Officials say the authority evicts about three families a year for criminal activity, with the offenses mostly drug-related. Each eviction costs the department $2,000 to $4,000.

“We’re always looking for red flags in the screening process,” Gonzalez said. “What’s so frustrating is when you have to evict someone.”

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Bernard Carn, the department’s program manager, said that most applicants would not be penalized for convictions older than three years. But he said that certain cases, such as child molestation, would be grounds for rejection, regardless of how long ago the crime occurred.

“This information is public information,” Carn said. “If a person is a child molester or something, we’re very concerned. We’re making sure we have a safe environment for our tenants to live in. We don’t want an atmosphere where they fear for their lives.”

The new system is set to begin pending approval from the state Department of Justice, which has already supported a preliminary description of the arrangement, officials said.

The move underscores the close relationship between this city’s police and housing departments. Last month, for instance, the Housing Authority gave $30,000 to the Police Department to step up patrols at Del Sol Park. They hope the increased presence will halt a spate of violent gang attacks at soccer games sponsored by the housing department.

Police Chief Hurtt brushed off the suggestion that the system could be prone to errors.

“We’re not going to step out of bounds in our eagerness,” he said.