A recently-formed task force involving San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan’s office, City Attorney Mara Elliott’s office and the San Diego Police Department announced four drug-related felony prosecutions on Friday.
The task force is called the San Diego Accountability Renewal and Community Health Task Force, also referred to as SD ARCH. It’s part of an effort to address chronic criminal re-offenders among people experiencing homelessness.
“We’re not talking about, for this task force’s sake, illegal lodging or encroachment or other related misdemeanor violations,” Stephan said during a press conference. “The crimes the task force focuses on include repeated drug sales, drug possession, assault and vandalism, which are very common in the encampment areas.”
While this effort includes the whole city, the two areas that the task force has been focusing on since its inception in August of last year are Linda Vista Park and Sports Arena Boulevard.
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Stephan said both of those are known to have encampments, as well as drug activity. The two mixed together, she said, can not only lead to more significant crimes being committed but can also make it easier for unhoused people, who are drug-addicted, to relapse, further delaying the possibility of treatment.
“We are not going to become San Francisco [or] Portland,” she said. “We are not going to be the city or county where there is an open drug market.”
Stephan said Frederick Johnson, a 59-year-old who was living in a tent at Linda Vista Park, was arrested and sentenced in connection with the task force’s work for having more than one dozen vials of methamphetamine. After he failed to appear in court, he was re-arrested and police officers found more of the drug, along with five cell phones, in his tent at the park.
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Three other people, 59-year-old Della Infante, 55-year-old Angel Bernardo Reyes and 44-year-old Ramon Julio Byars, were all arrested and convicted after repeatedly selling methamphetamine to undercover officers near Sports Arena Boulevard.
Stephan said the primary goal of the task force is to help people get the treatment they need, “but if they don’t accept treatment and want to continue to sell drugs and commit other crimes, then they will be dealing with measured consequences, including custody,” she said.
This task force comes as business owners and residents have expressed frustration with crime, including theft and vandalism. Stephan said that is the “renewal” part of the task force’s title. She hopes it renews the public’s hope in law enforcement locally and she, alongside Elliott, urged San Diego residents to continue reporting all crime through the following options:
- Call 911 in an emergency
- Call 619-531-2000 to reach the San Diego Police Department’s non-emergency line
- File a report on Get It Done
Stephan added the task force did not require any additional funds for the departments involved, rather they are using resources that are already available.
