Improving public safety has long been at the forefront of Santa Ana politics – a town where the police-union has historically been the biggest spender on local elections and the police department has been the biggest budget expenditure.
It’s an issue that political candidates on the campaign trail often hammer on as being one of the most vital concerns for residents and business owners with some incumbents like Mayor Valerie Amezcua often painting a picture of the streets they’re responsible for governing being endangered by homelessness, drug addicts and public defecators.
Amezcua and most incumbents on the city council are turning to voters this year asking them to indefinitely extend a 1.5% sales tax measure approved in 2018 that was supposed to end in 2039 – after struggling for years to balance their budget and having to cut over $11 million in spending this past summer.
One incumbent councilman, Phil Bacerra, who is seeking re-election this year, voted to put the measure on the ballot but says he opposes the idea because it won’t solve the structural deficit impacting city hall’s long term ability to provide services.
Santa Ana city officials and councilmembers like Amezcua have generally argued approving Measure N, the initiative to extend the sales tax, in November is necessary if residents don’t want emergency service responses to take longer.
The ballot measure, homelessness and public safety were some of the main focal points at a city council and mayoral candidate forum Tuesday evening hosted by the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by SoCalGas at Santa Ana College.
The forum marked the second candidate debate in less than a week’s time ahead of the Nov. 3 election next month – this one geared to questions related to local businesses.
While questions at the event did not touch on automated license plate readers, Tuesday’s forum took place right before elected officials in Santa Ana are expected to be the latest in Orange County to discuss reviewing their Flock contract next week and Voice of OC got a chance to ask candidates about their positions on surveillance technology after both events.
The expected discussion comes as residents across OC are increasingly speaking out against the proliferation of the license plate readers, raising concerns the cameras are an invasion of privacy, can be used to track innocent people and be misused by police officers.
There also are concerns the data and footage collected could be shared with federal agencies as the county continues to reel from deportation sweeps that kicked up last year with reports that a fusion center accessed Santa Ana Flock system on behalf of federal agencies.
At the same time, some politicians and police officials argue the cameras are an important tool necessary for officers to solve crimes and there is already widespread use of technology like smartphones and security cameras that can track people’s whereabouts and conversations.
It’s not just license plate readers.
Santa Ana city council members this year also approved an up to nearly $683,000 three-year contract for five drones and approved a resolution calling on state legislators to include Santa Ana in a speed camera pilot program.
Mayoral Candidate
Mayoral candidate Dan Shimell, an attorney, said he was against the expanded surveillance programs in Santa Ana and Flock cameras and their financial cost to the city.
“We need to get rid of that as soon as it’s legally feasible to do so,” he said in an interview last week.
“We’ve seen data leak. We’ve seen them be misused in other cities, and even with our own city,” Shimell said, adding “we were promised at the time that this data would be used just for law enforcement purposes and just for certain authorized state partner agencies and we’ve seen now that at times federal agencies have gotten a hold of that data, so I think that’s a problem.”
Dwayne Shipp, President of the OC Heritage Council and a Community Development commissioner, also said he was against the Flock cameras.
“Is it really effective or is it just about information and data that they’re selling?” he said. “If other cities are blocking them, why is Santa Ana trying to do it? Why is Santa Ana trying to get everybody’s information? So they can know where the immigrants are, so they could go kidnap them? I’m not with that stuff either,” he said.
Amezcua did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning or one last week despite publicly telling constituents she is accessible to everyone at Tuesday’s forum. She voted in favor of approving an up to $211,000 contract for the Flock cameras last year.
At the forum, Amezcua defended her focus and voting record on public safety issues, saying there are sex offenders in the city, developers are afraid to build in Santa Ana because they feel it’s not safe, adding that she would continue to take a strict stance on homelessness and continue to work with police and public works to clean up the city.
Shimell differentiated himself from Amezcua by saying, police are an important factor for public safety but so is creating and maintaining public parks and libraries.
He also criticized Amezcua for how she described the city in terms of its safety, saying her overhyping of crime in Santa Ana itself discourages people from bringing their businesses to town.
“One thing that is counterproductive is the kind of sensationalized ‘we’re not safe’ type of talk that we’ve just heard from one of the candidates. I think that sends the wrong message,” Shimell said at the forum.
Amezcua took issue with Shimell’s take on her record.
“Nobody is saying that everything is about public safety or quality of life and ‘oh my gosh, we’re scaring people.’ This is reality. If you’ve lived in the city your whole life or for a long time, you can see the decline in the city and now what you can see is the upwards. We are moving forward, and we’re doing good,” Amezcua said.
Ward 2
Selica Diaz, a realtor, said when she is elected she wants to review the policies surrounding Flock and wants to protect residents’ information from being released.
“I really currently don’t know what type of policy they approved but I would like those policies to be completely strengthened and for the information not to leave the city itself. That should stay completely confidential within just city limits and only for the use of the appropriate people, not for anyone else to to have that information,” she said at an interview after the forum.
Councilman Ben Vazquez said he is against the Flock cameras.
“It is spying and these are the tools used by dictatorships – by fascist governments – and when you have these tools in place and you leave them there, they can be abused and they will be abused,” Vazquez said in a phone interview last week.
Ward 4
Sandra De Anda, Director of Policy for the OC Rapid Response Network, said the Department of Homeland Security is using Flock to target community members.
“I don’t think that we, as a city, even understand the fullest extent of Flock. In cities like Costa Mesa, it’s been utilized by a police officer to stalk a woman, and I know that Flock is unfortunately being utilized to to harm women,” she said in an interview last week.
Bacerra refused to be interviewed after the forum. He voted in favor of approving the contract for the Flock cameras last year.
Ward 6
Isuri Ramos, Chairwoman of the Planning Commission and Executive Director of Chispa, attended the forum via Zoom because she was traveling for work.
Ramos said she does not support automated license plate readers like Flock cameras and next week’s city council discussion on this type of technology is long overdue – especially after reports the city’s system was accessed on behalf of federal agencies.
“The city council had until now failed to provide the oversight it promised. They promised an audit at the one year mark of the contract approval which would have been in May of 2026 – we’re about to go into October,” she said in a Wednesday phone interview.
“As we talk about the city barely being able to balance its budget and perhaps experiencing a budget shortfall if Measure N is not approved by voters, we also need to take a serious look at where our existing funds are going and I don’t believe they should be going to automated license plate readers.”
At a press conference in September, Ramos also called on city officials to review the city’s Flock contract and later said in an interview she doesn’t believe the benefits of Flock cameras outweigh the concerns from residents about the city becoming a surveillance state.
When asked at the forum for an interview, Giovanni Chavez, an attorney, said he would think about it. He did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.
Chavez said at the forum the city has to invest in more after school programs like the Police Athletic & Activity league that elected officials recently cut spending on as well as spend more on police officers and their equipment.
“We have to make sure not only do we have more public safety personnel to tackle these issues, but that they have the technologies they need to be able to address these issues,” he said at Tuesday’s forum.
In this year’s budget, the city has general fund expenditures of about $435 million with officials allocating roughly $166 million or about 40% of the pot – the largest slice – to the police department.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
