FOLSOM, Calif. — Folsom is considering how to provide funding for a homeless outreach team (HOT) within its police department.
Police Chief Rick Hillman presented to Folsom City Council last week statistics related to the unhoused community in the city. During his presentation, he said a HOT team would aid the department in controlling crime committed by the unhoused.
Last year, 3,451 calls for service (8%) out of 44,050 total involved unhoused individuals, Hillman said. Incidents involving the unhoused are designated with #NPA in the department’s system, which stands for “no permanent address,” he said.
“We use the #NPA on calls for service to see how many of our calls involve homeless individuals, but we don’t separate the data on whether the homeless individual was the suspect, a witness or the victim,” Hillman told ABC10. “Whether they were the suspect or victim, we want to reduce crime.”
Hillman said the department doesn’t currently have a method in place for tracking crime committed by individuals experiencing homelessness.
“If we do start a HOT team, we will not begin a practice of tracking the homeless,” he said. “A HOT team might gather more information to better learn how and why someone is homeless, but that would be the only reason for gathering that information. That information could be beneficial in helping those in need and wanting assistance.”
Abating illegal camps would be one of the team’s functions, but Hillman said he also sees it being a part of a homeless solution in Folsom. He said he wants a team coordinating and spearheading initiatives to help people out of homelessness.
“My vision for the team is not simply a group to abate illegal camps but to be dedicated to improving the conditions for our residents and our homeless community,” he said.
Hillman said the force’s problem-oriented policing (POP) team has the closest resemblance to a HOT team within the Folsom Police Department so far. Out of more than 200 complaints of illegal campsites, the POP team was responsible for posting 65 of those for abatement, according to law enforcement.
Patrol officers handled the remainder and code enforcement is responsible for the camps’ clean-up, Hillman said.
The department’s POP team, however, can get pulled from one major issue affecting the Folsom community to another, according to Hillman. They are not dedicated to homelessness issues and might get assigned to tackle something else, like retail theft.
At the April 23 Folsom city council meeting, Mayor Mike Kozlowski asked City Manager Elaine Andersen to factor in funding for a HOT team when presenting the 2024-2025 fiscal year’s budget to council on May 28.
“In that proposed budget, I will continue to prioritize at least 50% of the general fund to police and fire services and do the best I can to propose to fund as many of their needs as projected revenues allow,” Andersen said in a statement to ABC10. “The council will then take it from there and can make any changes they wish to make as long as the end product is balanced.”
The council must adopt the budget by June 30 and the city manager doesn't vote on it, Andersen said.
