Fingerprinting Begins for Overnight Residents of Drake’s Shelter

The First Southern Baptist Church of the Rev. Wiley S. Drake, who was convicted of misdemeanor violations of Buena Park’s city code this summer for sheltering the homeless on church grounds, on Monday began busing its overnight residents to the Buena Park Police Department to be fingerprinted.

The action is required under a memorandum of understanding signed by the city and the church.

Greg Beaubien, director of finance for the city, said the guidelines were agreed to by the church and the city.

“Both parties sat down and negotiated a set of guidelines for the Here’s Hope Ministry, the church’s ministry to the homeless,” Beaubien said. “To fully operate a homeless shelter, the church needs a conditional-use permit from the city.”

Beaubien said there is no court order stipulating the fingerprinting, “although the court is encouraging the church to implement these agreed-upon guidelines as much as possible.”

“We’re cooperating,” Drake said. “But I think the Police Department could have picked a better time to kick this off. It’s just a couple of days before Christmas.

“And the sad thing is that many people won’t come to us for help now,” he added. “They don’t want to be dragged down to the police station and have to go through being fingerprinted for criminal background checks.”

Sgt. Ken Coovert, spokesman for the Buena Park Police Department, said officers were expecting about 50 people from the shelter to be fingerprinted Monday night.

“I think this [fingerprinting] smacks of early German Gestapo tactics,” Drake said. “They want to do away with the unwashed wave of humanity that they see coming through their pristine little town.

“They have repeatedly said that these [homeless] people are not from here. But in actuality, most of them grew up here. It’s just that many of them don’t have jobs or homes. Does that make them criminals? No.”