Santa Paula Police Chief Steven McLean credits gang crackdown for crime decline

Ventura

Santa Paula’s crime total may have held nearly steady in 2018 from 2017, but in most years since an ex-Los Angeles street cop took over as police chief, the city has seen a marked decrease.

Police Chief Steven McLean started his tenure in July 2013 and has focused the agency’s efforts on proactive police work and building relationships. Although now he says addressing homelessness is among the department’s priorities, cracking down on gangs was at the top of his list when he started.

And that so-called gang strategy, which the department did not have before he got there, is part of what has driven down crime, McLean said.

“We’ve put a lot of bad people behind bars, and that’s the key. That’s how it works,” McLean said. “You focus on the leaders of the gangs, take a team philosophy and team approach, you put federal cases on them and then when you get enough cases, you take ’em down.”

Five-year low in crime in 2016

This general decrease in crime over the past five years can be tracked using figures released by the department each year to the FBI as part of federal authorities’ efforts to track crime nationwide. Cities submit information about certain reported violent and property crimes that include murder, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson.

In 2013, there were 651 of these crimes reported in Santa Paula. There were 535 reported in 2014, 506 reported in 2015, 426 reported in 2016, 542 reported in 2017 and 548 reported in 2018.

Additionally, Santa Paula police reported a five-year low in crime in 2016.

Offenses like assault, robbery, larceny and burglary tend to drive overall crime levels up or down, but figures show that in McLean’s first few years as police chief, these crimes consistently decreased.

But gang-related activity is not the only thing that affects the city’s crime statistics. Incidents of domestic violence can be blamed for some of it as well as drug dealing, McLean said. Drug addicts often steal in order to fund their next drug purchase, McLean said.

Here's a look at Santa Paula's crime trends in recent years.

Like other area law enforcement officials, McLean said legislation like Proposition 47, which made certain drug and theft offenses a misdemeanor, means those arrests don’t carry much weight in terms of penalty.

There are also reported incidents of theft and assault between the homeless people in the city. However, when it comes to homelessness, the only thing a cop can do is arrest a person or take them to the hospital on an involuntary psychiatric hold, also known as a 5150, McLean said.

But dismantling criminal street gangs is something he and his officers have more options to do something about, McLean said. And it was something he realized was a problem in the city as soon as he got here. The solution wasn’t foreign to him, either. He’s a former captain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, with experience dealing with the area’s notorious Bloods and Crips gangs.

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Low staffing levels an issue

Within his first week in Santa Paula, McLean put together a three-person team to confront gang-related activity by being proactive in neighborhoods and investigating timely intelligence. Due to low staffing levels — an issue that continues to pose obstacles — the team was not sustainable a year and a half later, McLean said.

That’s partly why it became important to build partnerships with other law enforcement agencies, the community and city officials, McLean said.

There were 19 officers in the department when he started; now there are 28. The agency is authorized for 34 officers, and four cadets are currently going through the training academy, McLean said.

City officials’ investment in the Santa Paula Police Department and revenues from a 1-cent sales tax approved in November 2016 have allowed the agency to further fill its ranks, McLean said.

Two of those officers became school resource officers to help spread prevention efforts about the “evil of gangs” and to educate youths about different paths to take in life, McLean said. Town hall meetings and other events around the city where the chief can be accessible also help make residents feel safe and be safe, McLean said.

City officials have his back, too.

“I have seen firsthand the impact that Chief McLean has had on our city, police department and spheres of influence. His approach of working as ‘one’ team to battle crime has shown to be very effective,” Mayor Clint Garman said in a statement. “Having a police chief that understands the dynamics of the city and who is constantly in the neighborhoods has been fantastic. Our police chief has a great department that has his back along with the rest of the community.”

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Part of his teamwork approach was influenced by his time as a cop in L.A. where he’d work hand in hand with the FBI. A call to the local FBI field office was one of his first as police chief in Santa Paula. The help from the feds didn’t come right away, but eventually they were able to conduct a one-year gang study identifying the city’s gang members, McLean said.

No one in the department knew how many gang members there were in the city when he got there, he said.

That turned into federal indictments against so-called “shot callers” in the gangs and local drug dealers. About half a dozen of these offenders have been indicted and more are in the works, McLean said.

Seeking federal charges was intentional, he said. In federal prison, offenders must serve a minimum 85 percent of their sentence. That percentage on the state level is much lower, McLean said.

The chief said one gang member in Santa Paula is one too many, and word has spread of his no-tolerance policy.

“It’s that constant environment of fear knowing that there’s gang members in my community. That’s the dangers of gangs,” McLean said.

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Linking up information from other Ventura County law enforcement agencies to build cases and make arrests also helps with the low number of officers.

Santa Paula police Sgt. Allen Macias, born and raised in the city he now protects, said the department tries to work with the Ventura County Probation Agency once or twice a year to make sure offenders on probation and parole are in compliance with their release terms.

Santa Paula police also work with other law enforcement agencies when carrying out a gang association search warrant, conducting those searches at anywhere from three to 10 homes at the same time searching for evidence linked to a crime, Macias said.

Macias was part of the initial gang enforcement team McLean had created. Now Macias oversees four other detectives who investigate crimes in the city. They each have a caseload but still do that proactive police work when time allows, especially if there’s been a shooting or stabbing and it could be gang-related, Macias said.

The sergeant said the agency needs 45 officers to be able to create that specialized gang enforcement team.

“Picture it this way: Any deterrent that you can come up with is half the battle,” Macias said.

Santa Paula crime by the numbers

Here’s a look at Santa Paula’s crime statistics for 2018 and how they compare to 2017 and 2013:

VIOLENT CRIMES

Homicide: 1 in 2018, up from 3 in 2017 and down 85 percent from 6 in 2013
Forcible rape: 3 in 2018, down 56.5 percent from 7 in 2017 and down 50 percent from 6 in 2013
Robbery: 31 in 2018, up 72.4 percent from 18 in 2017 and down 12.3 percent from 34 in 2013
Aggravated assault: 55 in 2018, down 27.8 percent from 76 in 2017 and down 15.7 percent from 63 in 2013

PROPERTY CRIMES

Burglary: 100 in 2018, up 18.9 percent from 84 in 2017 and down 6.7 percent from 103 in 2013
Larceny: 317 in 2018, up 2.3 percent from 309 in 2017 and down 15.1 percent from 359 in 2013
Grand theft auto: 41 in 2018, down 4.3 percent from 43 in 2017 and down 47.2 percent from 75 in 2013
Arson: Zero cases in 2018, down from 2 in 2017 and down from 5 in 2013