Mendocino County Grand Jury • 2008-2009 • Agency Response
Response to: PC 933.05

Response to Grand Jury Report The governance of responses to Grand Jury Final Report is contained in Penal Code § 933*

Published: May 18, 2009 8 pages
View Original PDF

Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F2, F7, F20

Findings and Recommendations 18 findings

F1
The Ukiah Police Chief is also in charge of the Ukiah Fire Department as Director of Public Safety. There are three captains, five sergeants, sixteen officers, seven dispatchers, two records clerks, one mechanic, one school resource officer (SRO) and two parking enforcement officers. There are currently no training sergeants.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
All officers, including the SRO, are assigned their own patrol vehicles.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
The current SRO has not received special training for his position.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
The SRO has an office at Ukiah High School (UHS) and also goes to other schools to teach younger children about prevention of alcohol and other drug use, gangs and vandalism.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
Marijuana and alcohol abuse are the biggest problems in and around the school this year. The SRO and school representatives perform locker and backpack checks on a random basis and whenever there is probable cause. Student affiliation with rival gangs is a significant concern at UHS.
No recommendations for this finding
F8
Due to construction, the SRO is not able to use his designated parking space in front of the school. This will be corrected when the construction is complete.
No recommendations for this finding
F9
Dispatchers are given one month training at an academy and then work with an experienced dispatcher for three months.
No recommendations for this finding
F10
If a non-English speaker calls 911, they are immediately transferred to a communications center where a language specialist transfers them to the correct interpreter.
No recommendations for this finding
F11
The UPD currently has no service dogs. The UPD and Sheriff's office have received a total of $100,000 from Homeland Security funds to purchase two dogs, special cars, equipment and training for the officers and the dogs. The officers and their dogs will attend two months of specialized training. Each dog will cost between $8,000 and $10,000. An officer has to make a commitment of three to five years to work in this position.
No recommendations for this finding
F12
One dog will be assigned to the UPD and trained for bomb detection, the other will be assigned to the Sheriff's office for drug detection. Both will be trained to protect the officers.
No recommendations for this finding
F13
There is an active bicycle law enforcement and safety awareness program. UPD issued 295 warnings and two citations during the past year. Violator's names are taken and logged. The warnings were for bicycle safety and failure to wear helmets.
No recommendations for this finding
F14
There are two parking officers and one parking enforcement vehicle. Although parking meters have been removed, the officers enforce posted time restrictions. City officials have delayed decisions on downtown parking to study what should be done.
No recommendations for this finding
F15
The UPD sponsors an Explorers program to introduce young adults, ages 18-20, to law enforcement professions.
No recommendations for this finding
F16
State funding for forensics and bookings is scheduled to end this year. UPD is seeking alternative funding sources.
No recommendations for this finding
F17
The Grand Jury found significant upgrades to the evidence room. In particular, the security and cataloging of evidence is now state-of-the-art.
No recommendations for this finding
F18
Project Sanctuary workers are involved in all domestic violence calls. This is a new collaborative effort between the Chief and Project Sanctuary.
No recommendations for this finding
F19
The UPD annual report that had been discontinued is being produced again and distributed to the community. Copies are available at the UPD. There are four openings for sworn officers.
No recommendations for this finding
F21
The Chief stated it is difficult to find qualified applicants that are likely to stay in the community after training because the pay is higher in other cities. For that reason, he is trying to recruit locally.
No recommendations for this finding

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.