The following transcript is provided for your convenience, but does not represent the official record of this meeting. The transcript is provided by the firm that provides closed captioning services to the City. Because this service is created in real-time as the meeting progresses, it may contain errors and gaps, but is nevertheless very helpful in determining the gist of what occurred during this meeting.

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Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee (PSFSS)

September 20, 2018

>>> well come to the public safety, finance and strategic support committee.

>> good afternoon police department research and development unit. Today I'll be presenting

our operations and performance bimonthly status report. Today's presentation will be on the

shorter side. It's going to be city wide crime statistics and a crime trend. We'll talk about

aggravated assaults and with me to talk about that is bryan shab from gang investigation and

assaults unit. After that we will go into questions. We are keeping it short today because we

have other pd presentations after. So moving into city wide crimes statistics. Looking at ucr

crime stats reported part one crimes January to July of this year versus last year, for violent

crimes our homicides, we had 16 from January to July of this year compared to 17 last year.

And to give you an idea, year-to-date we are at 20. In 2017 we had 34. And in 2016 we had

47. As far as rapes go, we are down 8.1%. Robberies, up 25.5%. This is an increase,

substantial increase we reported on robberies gave you statistics on them in the July

presentation. And to give you an update, since May two vacancies in our robbery unit have

been filled so we have two additional investigators now working on cases. As far as

aggravated assaults, are up 4.5% for the time frame and that is what we'll focus for our crime

trend today. And over all for violent crimes we are up 9.3% this year over last year. For

property crimes, burglaries are up 18%. This is probably something we'll an address in the

future presentation. Just to give you an idea though two weeks ago at shift change our

burglary prevention unit became up and running and this unit is going to target the most prolific

burglaries terrorizing our community. We also in our burglary unit have filled three vacancies

so we have two additional burglary detectives and one additional fraud detective. So that's

something positive. And then also recently as of the end of August, our department did change

our policies, our response to alarm calls were no longer only responding to verified alarms. So

these are some of the things we are doing to target burglary sz because we are seeing an

increase. As far as larsency goes we saw .8 increase and vehicle theft 1.2% increase. This

gives us a to the after property crimes 3.6 percent increase this year over last year. Grand total

for crimes we had increase of 4.3%. Now moving into our crime trend of aggravated assaults,

up here we have a map of incidents, ago vatded assault incidents excluding domestic violence

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for June and July of this year. You'll see we had 64 inches dents that's 20.3% of the total

aggravated assault incidents in this time frame in the city. And we break down the central

division by district, you'll see that district edward had 19 incidents, which is three less than last

year at the time time frame or during the time frame. District inc. Had had increase of 2. District

robert we saw 14 incidents which is decrease of two. And district victor 13 incidents this year

which is increase in two. So overhaul we remained pretty constant in the division, and in 2017

there were 65. So if we look central division, aggravated assaults and look at the types of

incidents that occurred, we saw the biggest change essentially in 245, assault with a deadly

weapon, excluding firearms. We saw decrease in eight incidents this year over last year in the

same time frame. And we saw our biggest increase in 417 brandishing of a firearm, increase of

five incidents this year, five this year versus zero last year. Over all it remained relatively

stable. 64 versus 65 incidents. Looking at our foothill division, there were 95 incidents total.

This constitutes 30.2% of the total incidents during this time frame. And you'll see based upon

the dot map this a large number of aggravated assaults occurred in our district charles. So if

we break it down, the foothill division by district, you'll see that district charles had 41 incidents

which is increase of six incidents over the previous year. Mary had 2 two incidents increase of

2. Paul had 21 ints dense which is an increase of eight. And william had 11, which is increase

in six. If we compare incident types for the foothill division, you'll see the largest change was

assault with a deadly weapon excluding firearms. We went to 56 this year from 39 the previous

year. This is increase in 17 incidents. Overall, there was an increase in 2 two incidents this

year over last year during the time frame. Choik. Looking at the southern division, there were

54 ints dense, this is 17.1% of the total number of aggravated a saultd gs during this time

frame. And you'll see little clusters in adam, in x-ray. And if we break down the southern

division by district, we'll see that we had 15 in district adam this was increase of ten. We had

11 in tom which is increase of one. A decrease in three in x-ray giving us 16. And decrease in

yellow of 3 giving us 12. Looking at the incident type comparison, the greatest increase was

assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, went from 32 this year, and we had 25 last

year, so increase of seven. Then overall for the southern division we saw increase this year in

five incidents over last year. Lastly for our western division, there were 102 ijs dents, this

constitutes 32.4% of the aggravated assaults during the time frame. By far, the greatest

number you'll see is in district lincoln. This shouldn't be a surprise. It always seems to be

district lincoln that has the greatest number of aggravated assaults. If we look at the western

division, by district, frank had 15 incidents. It's in crease in six over last year. Lincoln had 51

which an increase in five. Norah had a 12 decrease of two. And sam had 24 which is increase

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in two. Comparing the incident type, the biggest changes, it's brandishing a weapon, this year

we had 22. Last year we had 11. And overall there was an increase of 11 this year over last

year. So how are we dealing with aggravated assaults? What is our strategy? San José pd we

are doing two things, collaborative approach for the cases that already occur, then we are pro-

actively working to suppress aggravated assaults before they even occur. So as far as

collaboration, we are having our patrol officers, investigators, special operations, all work

together to follow up on these aggravated assault incidents and ultimately apprehend those

that are responsible. Then as far as pro activity, our cap pain tan our captains and lieutenants

are directing their resources to these hot spots. We want our sergeants and lieutenants to pro-

actively patrol during their patrol time. We are also sending out quality cars and our special

operations has gang cars going out to the areas. To give you an example of our collaborative

efforts, I'm just going to go through two cases for you very quickly. The first one occurred on

July 19th. And it was a shoot pg at a vehicle at king and cunningham. A witness called police

and reported that three suspects were firing a firearm at a vehicle. Officers responded out and

found shell casings. Our gi urks detectives followed up on this incident and were able to

identify three suspects. They were three gang members. Now our crew unit covert response

unit and violent enforcement team and our patrol division each apprehended one of the

suspects. Another incident was a shootd tg at walnut woods and la cree shah on August 27.

Here we had five students walking home from school. A car full of males pulled up alongside.

They exchaned woords and gang signals and signs. And then someone in the vehicle fired at

the students. one of the students retrieved a firearm and started firing back at the vehicle. Our

patrol officers arrived on scene and apprehended the student and recovered the firearm. Then

our giu detectives were able to identify the shoot fer and apprehended them. So as an

example of collaboration with the department. Good police work. Like I said, the other

approach is pro activity. And before we get into our pro-active work, just to put things in

context, from January 1st to June 30th of this year, we experienced an increase in calls for

service of 7.2%. This amounts to 12,625 calls for service more than our officers responded to

this year than they did last year. Despite this increase, pro activity is also increasing. Our

officers are out there doing excellent work. So if you look at the chart down below, city wide,

priority five events, which is foot patrol, bike patrol, going out to community meetings, the

arrests, arrests by warrant and criminal citations increased 9.4%. For priority 6 whic is vehicle

and pedestrian stops that our officers are making, the an arrests and arrest by warrant ns

criminal sites increased 20.1%. Other pro-active enforcement stats for you for quarter two,

which is April through June of this year, our violent crimes enforcement team made 39 felony

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and misdemeanor arrests and seased nine firearms. Our metro unit that three year time frame

made arrests and also ceased nine firearms. Our gang cars made 53 warrant an arrests, 59

criminal citations and ceased one firearm. And our patrol officers since the beginning of the

year have ceased over 160 firearms. So there are a lot of firearms out there. And our officers

are doing good work. And so our chief has actually created a gun seizure award recently to

award our officers taking them off the streets. Now they'll wear a pin to award them hand

encourage further pro activity. So that conclude our presentation for today. And now we'll open

it up to questions if you have any.

>> all right. Thank you. Any questions or comments from my colleagues? Yes, vice mayor.

>> yeah, thank you. Of course my concern is what's happening in the foothill area. It looks like

the biggest increase from all the different districts is in the foothill with the 30% jump. Am I

reading that correctly?

>> correct. It was an increase in 2 two incidents.

>> is that gang related? Do we know that? Is that gang related? Is that the hot spots we are

seeing?

>> I bloo eve that includes gang related offenses as well as nongang related offenses.

>> and I know I have a lot of the hot spots.

>> I can tell you there has been increased activity of gang shootings in the towelly lynn nye

area that was one of the cases that was mentioned. And in that case specifically I can tell you

those three suspects we were able to identify them and linked approximately five shot ings

otings. We are working to get the two shootings as well.

>> I'm imagining those are among, not that it's any better, but it is among --

>> correct.

>> rivalry gang members?

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>> correct.

>> yeah. And so when you say pro-active policing and we are looking at those gang hot spots,

are we deploying more visibility, officers so we can have more visibility in those areas?

>> so what our patrol captains and even our special ops captain, what they are doing is they

look on crime view dashboard, whatever you want to call t its our system, and they can look

every day and see where the crimes are occurring, where and when, and on a daily basis,

weekly basis they can tell their lieutenants and sergeants, hey today or yesterday this was a

hot spot we want to target this area. And if if changes then we shift our focus to where the hot

spots are moving.

>> yeah. And then of course summer months, right?

>> correct.

>> is it still true that summer months tend to be hotter than the rest of the school year?

>> statistically from what I've seen over the last, you know, year and a half, year and nine

months reporting, summer we dossier increase.

>> okay. And in October we are planning our mirror gang prevention task.

>> summit.

>> summit. And it's coming up reap l soon. So I don't know if these stats are presented or this

terms is brought up in terms of pro-active policing and how the community is taking an active

role in helping us prevent some of these issues are coming up in the community. Because it

sounds like we really do depend on the community participating and giving us that ongoing

feedback. Just as I'm listening to you, I mean I just think acknowledging and making sure that

our community is actively engaged in giving that feedback as it's happening really does play a

critical role in how we react and how we respond and how we do that very quickly so that the

problem doesn't move from one neighborhood and escalate to another neighborhood. And I

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have four kids, three that are still in school. And it's been alarming how many lock downs my

children have experienced just in the past school year. I never had to worry about that. But my

school age, very young children have had to experience that. For whatever that's worth. But it's

frightening for them to go through that. So, council member peralez I know you sit on the policy

task force as well. But I think it's worth looking into in terms of how important and what a

critical role the community plays in terms of prevention even addressing this as it's happening.

Because, you know, when you have an active shooter, what was the example that you just

even relayed was five active shooters, was that the example that you were just mentioning

right now?

>> no. We had a car full of subjects pull up and fire at the students and they were responsible

for five other shootings I said.

>> okay. But sometimes the community doesn't realize how important they are in helping us

prevent crimes from happening. My community doesn't think that we respond to them.

>> so when our sergeants, personnel, lieutenants, whatever, go out to community meetings,

we absolutely relay the importance to them of reporting crime and community involvement, our

crime prevention unit is out there doing the same. We let them know that their input also helps

drive our direction. So our captains, one of the pieces is crime data. Another thing is public

perception. And public input. And they can --

>> analysis of the calls for service.

>> well, the captains and lieutenants can pull this up daily if they want. They have the system,

they can pull it up whenever they want and watch the shifting crime trends.

>> okay. Thank you.

>> thank you. Any other questions for my colleagues?

>> council member jimenez?

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>> thank you, chair. So I have a question about the foothill division. And go to page 11. I'm

trying to figure out I've had a conversation with the chief and he's mentioned to me, as well as

our captain, that there is more car jackings around the east ridge area. And I think they are

being committed by younger folks. And so what would a car jacking with a weapon be

categorized as or without a weapon? Where does that fall under?

>> car jack wg a weapon, that's going to fall under 215. So in our ucr stats, where you see

robberies, that includes car jackings.

>> where is it?

>> on page 4 about our ucr data.

>> oh, 4. Oh, I see. So you just didn't break robbery down?

>> huh-uh.

>> got it. And so it would be under robbery no matter whether it was with a weapon or without

a weapon, car jacking is just under robbery? Okay. Well, I wanted to ask some questions

about that because I don't have any numbers myself, but I know that in reports with our own

captain of hill division, and then with the chief, I know that there is a recognition within the

department that there is increase in car jackings by young folks. So I'm wondering what is the

strategy for that. I realize that people are not stealing old cars and old cars that have pt ability

of, you know, what is it called.

>> jump start the ignition.

>> yes. Jump starting. I don't know if you can still do that. I'm guessing you can't with many so

of the modern cars and some of the cars that probably are targeted for robberies or for car

jackings. So, yeah, not only the honda civics, but whatever cars are attractive to them. So I

guess I'm wondering, is that why maybe the car jackings go along with the weapons? Because

they can no longer just break the windows and get in and jump start.

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>> yeah, well I'm speaking with the robber lieutenant two days ago, what he was telling me is

this year thus far we have more car jackings then we had all of last year. What they are

attributing that to, before you could steal a car, punch the ignition, whatever, now you have to

have the key. It's the push to start cars, so you have to have the keys. So in order to have the

key you must likely to have the driver. And if you are going to be taking the car from the driver,

you know, you might use a weapon to show that they are serious or to threat, threaten the

individual.

>> do you know offhand if any of those incidents that are related to car jackings have resulted

in any deaths of the victim?

>> you know, I don't have that stat for you. I can ask the lieutenant about that.

>> or injury to either party.

>> in the robbery report that we presented in July, there was some crime, some car jacking

stats, if you want I can forward that slide over to you.

>> okay. Perfect. And then when is the next update for robbers where you can break it down?

>> we weren't -- since we did it in July we weren't planning to do it. We are trying to spread it

out hand pick different crime topics. But I can always like I said email you some of the stats if

you need them.

>> well, and as holidays are coming closer, it's just, you know, the robber is going to it be a

little different, you know, with the mail, packages. And just I think just in general as we come

closer to the holidays so that would be interesting to know.

>> okay.

>> thank you.

>> thank you. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

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>> yes, thank you so much for the work. I like seeing the downward trends on some of these.

And I don't think I've made it a point of sharing these with my residents. And certainly they are

bound to pick out certain things that jump at them and nitpick this. But I appreciate the pro-

active approach and I hope it's indicative of where the department is going with the number of

officers in the academy and such. So I think the future looks much better. So thank you.

>> thank you. Zblm thank you. And so the only thing I'll add is in regards to you indicated

maybe coming back and having a report back on burglaries. Considering the burglary

prevention unit is just kicking off, I understand they are going to be doing some training for

sometime before they maybe deployed. So I don't know if it would be worthwhile to even give

that closer to a year to maybe give some stats so we can, and maybe you can compare hey

here was the previous year when we didn't have it, then actually a year from now we had them

in service at least six plus months. Do we know how shoon they will be complete with the

training and out there working?

>> I don't. I don't have that fact.

>> safe to says less than six months?

>> I'll have to check for you.

>> hock. If we can get that because my thought would be, you know, come back in about a

year's time frame for that specifically.

>> okay.

>> so maybe they can give you an idea when to come back with that.

>> okay.

>> otherwise, get a motion to approve the report?

>> move.

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>> motion. And a secretary. All those in favor say aye.

>> aye.

>> any opposed say none. Motion passes now we are onto d 2 card san José mun cal code

gaming patrol regulatory annual report. T choik. And today for the first time for me, we have

our acting deputy director of gaming division. So I'm excited to hear from you.

>> leave it to Mr. Yerm. I don't know if I pronounced that correctly.

>> good afternoon. Carol yerm active gaming administrative of gaming control san José police

department.

>> welcome.

>> good afternoon to the committee members. I have this meeting today officer michael app

who May answer some questions with respect to two reports we'll be presenting today. As you

know, san José has two card rooms. Bay 101 casino and casino matrix. And both of them are

regulated by the division on gaming control, san José police department. Sometimes in 2014

the chief of police directed the gaming administrator to prepare a report on compliance for title

16 on ar san José municipal code. And the report summarizes work permitting, licensing

issues, compliance issues related to each card room. and other regulatory matters.

Surrounding gaming operations in the city of san José. The report before you is our basically

division fourth report, compliance report that covers fiscal period July 1st, 2017 through June

30th, 2018. And the report concludes that both card rooms, casino matrix and bay 101, were in

all matters, in all material respects were in compliance with title 16 of the san José municipal

codes and other regulations such as minimum control standards, and in fiscal year 2017 and

fiscal year 2018. With that, the staff is available to answer any questions you May have.

>> thank you. Any questions, comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, I appreciate

getting the report and hearing that it appears as though our two card rooms are in compliance.

And I don't have any other questions in regards to the report, but I do have a question, this

May be for our city manager's office, what it looks like in regards to the outreach, actually, for a

new, I don't know if the title is division manager.

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>> it's actually deputy director. I don't know if deputy chief knox can give us an update. But I

understand itsds under way. Last I talked he can give you more up to date information.

>> good afternoon.

>> thank you.

>> we have done a recruitment. We started interviews last friday. We interviewed several

candidates. And we are continuing with the interviews tomorrow and through next week.

>> okay.

>> is where we are at.

>> and when do we expect to be completed and maybe naming a new head?

>> I would love to tell you tomorrow, but we haven't completed all our interviews and gone

through all the candidates we vetted so I'm hesitant to give you a date of exactly we would

identify the finalist.

>> okay.

>> the search committee is still doing the interviews, then we'll bring a final candidate to the

chief obviously for final interview.

>> okay.

>> so hopefully soon if this process goes well?

>> our hope is that we can do it this year.

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>> great. It's obviously an important role. And we lost I think just a wealth of knowledge in that

role. So we are really looking forward to this role being filled permanently. Otherwise, the

report looks great. So I don't have any other questions. Thank you.

>> perfect. Thank you.

>> so there are no other comments.

>> motion to ta prove.

>> in a second.

>> what? council member peralez?

>> thank you. I have a question about one of the ways to enforce sb 1193. And I'm guessing

that you are able to -- wait. I'm on the wrong one. Okay. So sb 1193 mandates different

businesses to post the human trafficking posters.

>> that is a different item.

>> no, no. I know. But it is -- I know. But it also applies to this. Because this is card rooms are

actually one of the places that are recommended as a place that should post them. So I was

wondering if that could be within some of your oversight?

>> I'm not aware that that occurs now. But I'll take a look into it and find out if we can make

that happen.

>> yeah, I saw that there was about 600 odd work permits that we reviewed as of the date of

the report. And so, you know, just stands to reason that some folks are work without permits.

And I don't know if there is any enforcement in terms of visual count of employees versus

what's on the numbers. Whatever way of enforcing, also who is on the books, right.

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>> they are highly regulated in all their employees on the gaming floor are permitted by us. So

we know who is working there for the most part. But it's a good idea. And I'll talk to them about

that.

>> yeah. Even highly regulated places such as this one, which is most places that have

gambling, I'm not saying always has some association to prostitution or other criminal activity,

but there seems to be some connection at times with prostitution and gambling. I'm not saying

these two establishments have any of that correlation. But I'd love for the employees who are

there to at least visually see a poster that could essentially help somebody out.

>> okay.

>> thank you.

>> good suggestion. Okay. Nothing else, then we do have a motion to second. All those in

favor say aye.

>> aye.

>> any opposed? None motion passes. Thank you. Now we move on to the impact of card

room gambling and our crime annual report item d 3.

>> carol, division of gaming control, yerm, since the adoption of title 16 of san José municipal

code on November I believe 23rd, 1999, the chief of police has been required to prepare an

annual report relating the impact of card room gambling on crime. The report before you

covers the reporting period of July 1st, 2017 through June 30th, 2018. And what you will see is

that the data basically shows that there was a slight increase in both calls for service and the

reported incidents in both card rooms since last fiscal year. However, the total number of calls

for ser stris remain service remains lower than the previous year, which is 2015, 2016. Bay

101 casino and casino matrix, I apologize, but basically this is my answer, that there was a

slight increase in calls for service and reported incidents in both card rooms, and also there

was a slight increase in reported arrests comparison to the previous fiscal year. And we are

available to answer to any questions you May have at this point.

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>> thank you for that report. Do my colleagues have any questions? Council member peralez.

>> I have just a general question. What I'm wondering is, in the analysis that we do, I'm sure

there are other like establishments around maybe the country or the state, obviously. But are

there any -- do we ever do comparisons to other like establishments in the state to see sort of

of how these two entities in our jurisdiction sort of fare with regards to calls for service and

where we are on that spectrum? I don't know if that makes sense.

>> it makes sense. I'm not aware of any comparisons with other jurisdictions. I do know our

two establishments here calls for service are relatively low and they don't seem to have a great

impact on crime. And doesn'tly anecdotally speaking, speaking to other agencies that have

card rooms orca sinno in their jurisdiction, they seem to trend a little more. But I don't have any

comparable statistics to show that.

>> thank you.

>> council member from the city managers office, in past reports, the department had several

years back provided some comparisons to the council between the card rooms and other

heavily trafficked businesses in areas in san José, you know, such as shopping malls or other

types of uses. But we can -- the policy team and the city manager's office can take a look and

see if some of the other jurisdictions have these types of reports on gambling crimes. It's not,

to my knowledge, something that we have seen other jurisdictions put out there to the level of

transparency that san José has.

>> okay. Thank you. And I wanted to also point out looking at the list of the event types, it

seems some of the higher numbers seem to be, in my mind, sort of consistent with some of the

business that's going on, whether it be counter fit currency, disturbance, fraud, forgery. One of

the things that stood out to me is there were, I think there is a number here associated with

welfare check. And is that just someone like leaving a kid in the car? You know, certainly if you

don't have the answer, I'm just trying to think out loud.

>> I don't have the details of each specific call. But I mean that's not -- I mean I haven't heard

of in instances someone left a kid in the car since I've been there at the casinos. But I don't

have any details on the individual calls.

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>> okay. And that is sort of thinking out loud and just going through the list. But thank you for

the information. Appreciate it. And that's it.

>> thank you. Any my other colleagues have a question? If not, I actually have a quick

question. Kind of along the lines of councilmember jimenez, when we look at the incidents,

most of them are pretty negligible, particularly the gambling related gambling crimes. But the

ones, the bigger numbers are actually numbers where I would imagine that the casino itself is

the victim of the crime, whether it's counter fit currency or check fraud. Would that be a correct

assumption?

>> yes, you are correct with that. And I know the two gaming arrests or gambling arrests,

actually cheating incidents. Bay 101 was the victim on that. And bay 101 staff recognized it

and caught two patrons, one was capping a bet, and one was moving a bet. So they were the

victims on those two crimes as well.

>> great. Well, thank you. And can I get a motion to accept the report?

>> motion.

>> I have a motion. Second. all in favor say aye?

>> aye.

>> all right. Thank you again for that report.

>> thank you vice chair jones. All right. Now we are onto item d 4. This is our council priority

10. One that I am extremely proud to see the results in this report. So I look forward to having

this discussion. This is on our personal care business compliance initiative.

>> I'm lieutenant paul mess yea, I supervise the vice unit at san José police department. This

is my colleague sergeant rick ga lay a, also responsible for vice administration.

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>> so I have a power point presentation today. What I'd like to do is start off by kind of going

over and overview of what I'll be talking about in this presentation. This is about a 15 machine

minute long presentation but it will go fairly quickly. So choik, let's see here. So I'm going to

talk about the proposed initiative history. I'm going to show you some maps of the saturation of

massage parlors in the city of san José. I'm going to talk about our new enforcement program

and the results of that program as well as some recommendations. And then a conclusion. So

a little bit of the histor of this initiative. The proposed initiative in March of 2017 was reg stray

requiring all personal care businesses performing massage to register. Additionally, there was

a moratorium that was recommended choik on the distribution of new massage permits. and

then to conduct outreach to and discussion with business professionals. And as you can see in

the power point presentation here, in 2016 our massage ordinance was adopted. March 2017

was the personal care business compliance initiative that was add today the priority list and it

was number 10. And in 2018, we added a code enforcement officer. In addition to that we got

sergeant rick ga lay to my left and he was assigned to the vice unit. And I already went over

that. Okay. So here you can see we have about 191 suspected IMBs. They are elicit massage

businesses. What we did is we kind of started from scratch in January of 2018. And what we

did is we actually went around and physically verified how many massage businesses there

were in the city of san José. Additionally, we looked at open source information. And

specifically will individuals that were leaving information online regarding prostitution activities

occurring at these locations. These were the locations that were the highest priority to us

because of the possibility of human trafficking that could be occurring at that time. This is

another heat map by council district. As you can see we have very heavy clustering in districts

1, 6, 7 and 8. So around the time that we started our new program, this report came out. This

was a report that was put out bipolarist which is an organization devoted to ending human

trafficing. And this was specific to the massage parlors. And this report identified santa clara

county as the third highest concentration illicit businesses in the united states compared to

other counties. So this report was really the catalyst for the program that we developed. So a

little bit about our new program. This was going to be a collaborative effort between the vice

unit, code enforcement and the city attorney's office. There was quite a bit of cohesion and

communication. We would meet on regular basis and discuss issues, legal issues, various

massage parlors we were expected in involved in prostitution. So these meetings occurred reg

already regularly and all had the common goal of reducing the illicit services in the city of san

José. Additionally called for stopping the covert and bring people in to help us with these

investigations. The these were typically officers that worked in vice in the past. Then wa we did

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is we wanted to implement a component to this program that was cost effective, something

that would not be as expensive as bringing in officers in on an overtime basis to assist us and

that was the landlord education program which proved to be successful. a little more on that.

What we would do is identify the illicit business and what we would do is track down the

landlord. Sometimes easier said than done. We had to do a lot of research to figure out who

these people were. Then we would have a face-to-face with them usually at the police

department in my unit. We would give them three online reviews indicating prostitution was

occurring at their property which was very eye opening to them. We would provide them a

copy of that polaris report which talked about human trafficking and illicit massage businesses.

We would give them a letter from them that we believed prostitution May be occurring in their

business and that letter would talk about red light abatement laws and how they could be held

liable. So in addition to that, we would also reveal to them that the business in question did not

have the proper city permits and could be in violation of their lease agreement because they

are not obeying with the law. Which is typically written into any lease agreement. And then of

course we would educate them about illicit massage businesses. And some of our abatement

laws that we have. So regarding the enforcement activity that we did, we did 60 covert

operations since January of 2018. The year before, for the entire year, the vice unit only did

nine. i did 114 landlord education meetings. And, again, we would have those individuals

typically come down to the police department. And surprisingly they were almost always

agreeable to doing that and then code enforcement, which was a critical part of this, it was

code enforcement officer william jerry who is in the audience today, did 46 three inspections,

193com pliance orders and wrote 106 citations. You might be wondering are there 463

massage parlors in the city of san José? No. There were multiple inspections at one premise

that's why the number is so high. Here are the results, over the last nine months 107 massage

parlors have closed. When I say closed, I mean they have completely moved out. They are no

longer here. 33 are in process. That means they have been exposed to either the landlord

education program or a covert operation and we expect they are going to close. And of that

original 191 we identified only 45 are remaining that have not been part of that owner

education program or a covert investigation. So how did we close the 107? So 6 two of them,

which is the area in green there choik, were closed with that landlord education program. That

program was extremely successful and very cost effective because that was something that

we could do with just maybe one or two people. The area in blue there are covert

investigations at 24% that were closed with that type of investigations. And then the gray area

was a combination of both. And typically if I could not get them out with the owner education

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program, and there were various reasons why that May have happened, rick would conduct an

undercover operation so we would have a cop bin nation of the two so 18% we were able to

get out that way. Here is a pretty shocking statistic. Of the 60 covert operations that we

conducted, 90% of those businesses were offering prostitution services. There were only six

times that we did not make a case. And really we didn't see that start to happen until about

July. And the reason why is because the word was getting out on the street that we were doing

enforcement.

>> can you pause on that and go back just a second and restate the last sentence? It sounds

like you were saying you think maybe some of the businesses caught wind of the sting?

>> yeah. So basically we were shocked about how often every business we were going to we

were able to make a prostitution case. And it wasn't until about the end of July that we started

to see that we were unable to make cases, which is good, because now we are seeing

businesses that are actually following the law, and not committing prostitution related crimes.

But we suspect the reason why we were not able to make a case is because the word was

getting out that san José pd was conducting covert operations, which is good, we want that to

get out, because we want people to know we are checking them.

>> thank you.

>> when they think nobody is.

>> go ahead.

>> I'm kind of going like, wow, because I'm a little naive in this stuff because I can't believe it's

happening. And especially happening to this degree. So two points of clarification. You said it's

the third largest concentration in the U.S.?

>> santa clara has the third highest concentration of illicit massage businesses in the united

states compared to other counties.

>> and what are the other two counties? I'm just curious?

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>> I would have to research that in the report. But I could research that and get back to you on

that.

>> okay. And then I just want to be real clear. When you say prostitution, it's like the oldest --

>> look, I mean, here's the bottom line. This is an extremely lucrative industry. And these

massage businesses are basically brothels with a storefront. You go in and pay your initial fee

for the massage, but once you are behind closed doors there is second negotiation for

services. That's how this works. And those services could vary.

>> okay.

>> okay?

>> yeah.

>> okay.

>> yeah. Okay. No, that's it.

>> okay. So some other interesting facts that we discovered here. Seven fully permitted

massage businesses were offering prostitution services. That means they had their massage

license and completely legit on paper but we still want to go in and verify they are not breaking

the law. And sure enough seven of our fully permitted massage businesses were offering

prostitution services. Their massage business permits were revoked and they have since

vacated their premises. Currently 19 massage businesses are fully permitted in the city of san

José. And then two landlords renting to illicit massage businesses where prostitution services

were con fwirmd refused to evict their tenants and that May have been a situation they were in

cahoots with their tenants what was going on. Any questions regarding that? Okay. So here is

one of the challenges we face now due to the enforcement efforts that we have brought forth.

We are now seeing a change in their business model. We are now seeing salons offering

prostitution services. So this is one example of a salon that was offering prostitution services in

the area of oakland and murphy. And as you can see when you walk through the controversy

door it looks like your typically salon. You wouldn't think anything else was going on here. But

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the reason the way that this place came up on our radar in vice is because of the comments

that the sex buyers were leaving online regarding this establishment. So of course we sent in

an undercover officer to check this out. And he was able to make a prostitution case. So what

you see here basically is a secret room. There is no door knob. There was a bar gauge can in

front of the door. And you are simply able to push this door open choik. Once you get inside

and it's I apologize for the photograph, but there is a private room with a bed. There were

actually eight beds, or I'm sorry eight total rooms in this business hidden in the back where

these services were being offered. And the challenge that we have with these salons is they

are not subject to our rules and regulations. They are not required to have a massage permit.

They May be required to have some other state license for offering salon related services, but

this is one of the challenges, especially related to the moratorium that I'm going to talk about in

a little bit. You can impose a moratorium on massage businesses, but what they'll do is exactly

what they are seeing, they are change their business model and open up as something else.

okay. So this is the exact same map I showed you earlier with about 107 less massage

businesses. You can really see there is a big difference here. And, again, we have 33 pending.

And 45 unprocessed. And there is the heat map again. And as you can see, it's much different

than that first heat map. We still have some heavy clustering in the area of tully and king, but

we are working on that. So how do we measure our success with this new program? We have

seen a 950% increase in massage permits applications. And that is just a signal to us that our

outreach to these individuals is working. The word is on the street that we are enforcing these

rules and regulations. We are educating these people about how to get in compliance. And

they are actually starting to follow the rules which is a good thing. We also measure our

success by what sex buyers are saying online. And I'm going to show you another slide about

what they are saying. We are getting calls from neighboring agencies that do not have as

strong of laws as we do wanting to know why so many massage businesses that were wns in

san José that are moving into their jurisdiction. And we've have also had inquires as to our

enforcement program and what we are doing. Wr we were actually asked by polaris to put on

online seminar related to this new program we were doing to teach other law enforcement

agencies to get them on board with how successful this program has been and could work in

their jurisdictions. Then of course we have gotten calls from human trafficking prevention

groups because they have noticed the closures that are going on of all these massage

businesses that are involved in this illegal activity. So here is a chart just of how many people

applied for a massage business permit in '16, '17, 2018 and as you can see it increased

dramatic will I -- dramatically in 2018. What are the sex buyers saying online? Keep in mind

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when I say online, I'm not talking websites that are open to anybody. You have to pay a fee to

join, to get a membership to these websites. So these are individuals that are sex buyers that

are looking for prostitution in massage businesses. So san José police using info from reviews

to shut down amp, they are asian massage parlors. San José seen repercussion of these

trading. Any info on san José? What this tells me is this guy can't find a place to go that is

offering services so he wants to trade information on the messenger app on this online website

to find out where to go. That is the good sign. San José scene is dead. Pd has it on lockdown.

So some other interesting trends. Minimal reviews describing prostitution online. These guys

know we are monitoring all the different websites. They are no longer sharing information or

very few are. Longer wait times at the remaining businesses. Our covert operations, we had

undercover officers waiting up to two hours before they could get into a room. Charging

customers more money. And I'll show you a chart in a second here which indicates that. More

vetting of new customers. Fewer relocating in san José under a new business name. Now,

trust me, we had a few try. They would change the name of the business and they would open

up somewhere else in the city of san José. But we were keeping track because we we were

meeting with the landlords and keeping track of who these business owners were. And when

they tried to open up somewhere else ks we knew it, we were able to go call the landlords and

get them evicted. Or if they applied for their permit, it was immediate denial. So we were very

good at shutting these places down when they tried to open up again. Okay. Here's an

example of the prices and how they sky rocketed. As you can see from this picture here they

went up about 20% for any type of massage, although their waxing services remain the same.

Just kind of an interesting statistic. So in conclusion, regarding the registry, the finance, what

we discovered is that the finance department has a registry in place. And what's interesting

about this registry and how it can be - beneficial to us is they are able to capture businesses

under different industry codes. So as we are seeing the massage parlors maybe move to

salons or some other type of personal care service, we can have finance capture the specific

types of businesses under these business codes that they are going to mind for us. So what

we've agreed to do with finance is every three months they'll give us a quarterly report. And

what we've asked for are barber shops, nail salons, other personal care services and other

personal services, any business dog massage or prostitution should fall under one of those

categories and they will be table to provide that to us. So we believe this process will

implement and will close out this council direction and really practical and cost effective

manner. We will not have to do any cost recovery or bring in other person to do that. We've

already coordinated with them and they have already supplied us with the registry, which is

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great. And we can compare that registry to our own as well as the one that our permits unit has

for people applying. And we can also compare it to the state registry and we can look at all that

information and see who is in compliance and who is not. so regarding the moratorium, so,

look, our department was in a very different place in the past in regards to staffing. And it's

absolutely true that this problem was really allowed to perpetuate because of our lack of

enforcement and our staffing situation at that time. But things have changed. Our staffing has

increased. Of the 191 we identified, there is only 45 left. Rick and I feel, and we have

consulted with billy about this, I'm sorry william jerry, we will be able to get though those 45

probably within the next three to six months. So at this point, we really no longer feel that there

is a need for a moratorium. The department recommends that this item be dropped from the

council priority direction. So regarding the outreach and discussion with the industry, that was

the third component to the personal care compliance initiative, we have been conducting

outreach and discussion with the industry sinsz we since we started this program. We do it

every time we do an operation. William jerry does it every time he does an inspection. And we

are seeing starting to see compliance, which is great. And that's indicative of the 67

businesses that came in and actually applied for a permit. So we are starting to see that

compliance take effect, which is what we wanted. So, again, we consider that portion of the

council's policy priority to be implemented. And, again, enforcement is ongoing. This program

is working. We are going to continue to do what we've been doing. And I really believe we are

going to continue to see success and see these businesses continue to get out of our city,

which is what we want. So in conclusion, you know, the data that I've shown you today, the

anecdotal information, it really demonstrates our new approach. And partnership has been

extremely successful. My final recommendation would be focusing on continuing that

enforcement. And also promoting the landlord education program. There is something very

powerful about having a landlord in contact with the police officer face-to-face to talk about

human trafficking and crimes that could be occurring in their business. And that program has

really been the success of everything that we have done. So we are going to continue doing

that as well. Can I answer any questions for anybody?

>> yes. And I'll ask my colleagues, but I know council member jimenez had some questions.

>> thank you, chair, and congratulations, this is wonderful. This is optimal. And I think this is

wonderful work, one that was highly needed, and I want to thank couple member peralez to

bring this to to the forefront. So I have a couple of questions about who was involved. i think I

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heard you say city attorney was involved in this operation and so was the vice unit. Was there

anybody else from the county involved?

>> not the county. But code was heavily involved, code enforcement officer william jerry was

instrumental in our efforts.

>> that's who was missing, code enforcement. Yeah. I was wondering, the county is doing

some great work under human trafficking and they have a council. And so I wonder, this is

where my concern is, that these businesses don't seem to be too affected. Because you said,

one of your comments was they were quick to turn around, go somewhere else, and set up. So

to me that tells me that their fracture wasn't infrastructure wasn't danled too much. Either the

staffing or employees were the same so they can replicate this pretty quickly. So I'm

wondering where these women who are working for them or obligated to work for them,

because they seem to remain mainly in the same situation.

>> you know what, I truly wish I could tell you that we are actually solving the human

trafficking problem that is occurring in this area. However, I think what we are doing is really

displacing it. I think we are pushing it out of the city of san José and they are going to

jurisdictions with less rules and regulations. It's an extremely lucrative business. And, you

know, it's one of those things where we -- if we come across human trafficking or something

that we think is human trafficking, we are absolutely going to act and we are going to do

everything we can to help that individual and get them the resources they need. But it's very

difficult to quantify exactly what impacts our effort has made. But the anecdotal information

indicates that they are being pushed to other surrounding jurisdictions. And the same activity

now maybe occurring there. But if there is one good thing, those agencies are reaching out to

us, and we can tell them about the successes we've had using this program and try to get

them on board. And we are very willing to meet with them and help them. And we've even met

with the sheriff's department to discuss our program and lou it's worked for us. Tan we are very

interested in it. So we'll continue to do that. And hopefully we can have a regional impact in

this problem.

>> I appreciate that. I think, for me, this represents a human suffrage problem. And unless we

get to the bottom of it, which is some of these men and women involved in these businesses,

then we are going to continue to see them t absolutely the patrons on the other side are very

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much to blame. But the county has this legal and social services model that seems to be

working, where the victim isn't criminalized, and they are referred over to legal services and

connected to social services so that they could have ta a comprehensive network of support.

And I really worry about some of these victims or survivors. Because nothing is changing for

them. And so we are making it actually really much more difficult for those folks to actually

come out. Because I don't know where they are at. One thing is to have them at the massage

parlors or at least you know they are there. Now they are going to get really creative. So are

they going to have a regular home, looks like a home? I just don't know how underground

they'll go. And that really worries me sochlt that so that means the suffering from those victims

will go from county to county to county and there will not be a stop until something happens,

either death or they go to prison, or something. So for me something is missing here. We

cannot close this. We can't close the books on this as a priority, because as far as I see it, the

piece that is most important to me, which is protecting those victims or those folks who are

victims, all of them are not volunteer there willingly, but we haven't pulled in that piece. So I

wouldn't say -- I couldn't say that if the folks who were serving them are the best people to

recognize that scenario and those risk factors and to help those victims. And I don't see that

that's happening. I'm really happy that it's moving away, but it worries me in the long run

because, you know, they are going to go under grund and get really creative. So I really would

love to see in future sting operation, I don't know if you'll have any in the future, but that we

have a very good partnership with the county or those agencies that are serving.

>> we actually have been in touch with community solutions because we want to start

involving them more. Additionally, I've spoken to them about creating some flyers in various

laungs nguages that we can pass outs when we are in the massage business. And we are

working with them. This is all about greed. If we can have an impact on the money we can

have a positive effect. Because if they are not able to operate them, it hurts them. They are not

making money when they have to close and relocate. The key is getting all the other agencies

around us on board so they have no where to go.

>> absolutely. And I don't want t takeaway from the success you've had here because I think

it's great that you are closing these places up. Yet it begs the question about what's happening

with some of those sex workers, whether they are obligated or not obligated to me droenltly

make a difference, what's happening to those people. Are they being charged? 90% of that

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diagram show that they were sex related incidents there. So how many women were charged

with prostitution I guess is one of my questions?

>> okay. So when we do one of these owner education programs or we do a covert operation,

and we contact a landlord, it's very impact full ful for them to say, hey, look we have confirmed

there is prostitution going phon and we and we have taken enforcement action. That

enforcement action could include a citation. It could include an arrest, although I can't think of

one time that occurred. Or it could include writing a report and documenting it for our district

attorney to review. It really depends on the circumstance. But what we are trying to do is shut

these places down. And although we May have to take a criminal action against a person, if we

can shut a place down, we are preventing all those other women from being victimized. So for

me that is a very small price to pay to actually get one of these places closed and the doors

shut.

>> and I'm not advocating for them to stay open by no means. I want them closed. I see there

is an over concentration in my district over tully and king. So that greatly concerns me. i think

we should continue to close them and regulate them. Close them if they are not performing

what they say they are performing which is just massage services. But I think it it would really

be great to have a different approach to it, which is supporting those that if they are victims, or

sex workers, also even if they choose to be in that situation should have some options.

>> absolutely.

>> so I think at the very least that's why I mentioned sb 83, the poster, absolutely the minimal

thing as we regulate massage parlors that there be a poster. But aside from that as we are

approaching closing any of these places, that we have the victims or the survivors in mind and

bring in those partners that can render the best services. And, obviously, we don't provide

those services, the county does. So I would like to see that partnership grow or be there. I

know you had some contact. But to really be there throughout the whole process.

>> thank you. And, actually, I appreciate adding that component. And I would actually say that

this council priority is complete as well. But I was going to ask that we still get a report back a

year from now with an update to just see how the continued progress has gone. And if indeed

from now until next year an organization like community solutions has been able to partner

26

with us better, we have actually asked this on other occasions, specifically with domestic

violence, vice mayor was bringing up that component. And unfortunate that's not the role of the

police department. The police department is not doing social services. We need a partner to do

that and the county funds that for the most part and we need to partner with someone. So with

domestic violence we had next door solutions come with a presentation with pd sochlt if it is

community solutions or another proe partner that is able to partner with the department, and I

imagine the reports next year won't be as stunning because we made so much progress,

about you it would be great to have them come with you maybe next year when we do the

report to provide some of that feedback as well to ourselves to say, hey, yeah, in addition to

the great work we are doing in shutting these down, here's another component that we've

added to it and allow them to speak to their expertise to see how they are able to do that. So if

somebody wanted to incorporate that within a motion, I would support that.

>> I'll make the motion.

>> and in that motion I'd like to also include the partnership piece. So the report back in a

year, as you said, and partnership with county services.

>> sound great.

>> thank you.

>> okay. And then vice mayor.

>> yes, thank you so much for the report. I just wanted to, before you leave, you know, it does

take me back. Because I guess with the diversity of our community, we are going to have a lot

of complex issues that keep coming up. And of course we are going to have challenges. And

this is definitely one of them. And so I'm glad that you're working through it. Tan that and that

you are making sure that our community is safe. And I think that by shutting them down, you

are ensuring that a lot of those victims that don't want to be there stay safe. And I know there

are other complex cities, and I think that bringing it back with some partners, will be helpful. I

think that there is some exploring that needs to be done, and I think that's something we will

have to work through. And I think council members bring up valid points but we need to

possibly explore those partnerships maybe through the county or some of other nonprofits. I

27

think the relationships we have to deal with and address the domestic violence issues has

turned out to it be an ideal situation. And I think that's something we need to address. You've

identified it. Now it's up to us to figure out how to continue exploring that. But it's stunning to

just hear some of the items that you're addressing and that you've brought up today. And I'll tell

you why it's stunning. Because I know that it takes place in the back rooms, but it seems so up

front as well, right. We pass by them every single day. And I think we instinctively think there is

something shady going on in there. But until you walk in there, I mean, you know, I don't want

to say the proof is in the pudding, but I mean I can't get back into those back rooms, right, to

witness whatever is going on. And you see that it takes you several visits or, you know, you

kind of have to catch them in the act, I don't know what you all need to do to actually determine

that it's happening. But it's not just having that instinctual gut feeling, but it takes various times

for you to be there and to see it. I mean, my staff goes out there when they are firing the

businesses and trying to establish relationship ws the business and they come become and

say I don't think that's a legitimate massage parlor, right. I think there is something else going

on. And we try and call it in as well. And then suddenly a month later they are not there

anymore. And so something is happening and they are migrating to other places or they are

just, you know, closing up shop and moving away, hopefully, and not opening up shop

anywhee else. And we know that this is a multi-victim type of business. Because it doesn't just

impact the individuals that are there in the shop itself. It has -- I think there is many layers of

victimization that takes place. We don't know what's going on in the families. We don't know to

what extent -- there are many stories I'm told and I've heard them from the victims

themselves. So I appreciate the job you've done. Thank you for the report. And I know that it's

very complicated. And the only other thing that I'm going to ask u f , council member peralez,

and I know this impacts your district greatly, I have a staff member actually that lives just

across the street from your district but it impacts your district, and it seems to be what is the

insurgence of the kind of prostitution that I grew up with, right, that's out on the street. So what

I want to know is where is the nexus between the massage parlors and the prostitution that's

out in the street? Are they the same people that are going back and forth? Or are these people

that are in the massage parlors, you know t , practicing prostitution in the massage parlors and

going in the streets? Are they the same folks or different folks?

>> I'm going to let sergeant rick answer that question.

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>> typically what we see the woman that are comfortable doing these kind of illegal activity

behind closed doors, typically stay behind the closed doors. Whereas the girls that are familiar

with being out in the street, we refer to them as street walkers, they tend to stay out in the

streets. We don't see girls who were working on the streets go into the massage parlors and

vice-versa.

>> okay. That's interesting.

>> and there is a certain security factor with your street walker or your massage parlor. So

some girls who are comfortable with working in the massage parlors, they feel more safe

because at least you are with your other coworkers, you are in this room, you know, just with

your one customer. Versus out in the streets you are getting into cars with guys you don't

really know, you are by yourself that creates a whole other dynamic.

>> thank you.

>> I imagine at some point we should probably address that and have a conversation about

what's happening out on the street. Just recently I've been seeing, is it my imagination, I've

been seeing more of that.

>> so sergeant rick does a majority of the prostitution enforcement on the highway zoo so he

would be expert regarding that subject.

>> will we at some point hear what's happening? Especially on monterey road is where I'm

seeing it happen. And am I seeing more of it? Or is this just because it was hot weather?

>> well, can I interject? I think it's a good topic for, we can ask the lieutenant who gives the

initial update where we can actually have that be -- we discussed the priority areas we can

talk about over the next year.

>> yeah.

>> I think that would be great as well. Because we haven't had a presentation on that. We

have been focused a lot on the massage parlors. So maybe you can work with her and one of

29

these presentations come back and give us an actual thorough discussion where we agenda

specifically the street walker prostitution.

>> I would like that. Uh-huh.

>> thank you.

>> all right. Any other colleagues? If not, I have a couple of comments. So first off, I wanted to

applaud you while you were speaking but I'll wait until the end of the day and come and shake

your hand if you want to stick around. I want to say thank you so much. I think the work that

you have done with such little staff has really been tremendous. And william jerry, if you can

wave, there you are. High hi william I was hoping you would be down here too to pay you

acknowledgment. I appreciate the work you have done in coordination with our police

department. The results are far beyond what I even thought might be possible in less than a

year now from when we asked to get this report and update. You know, 2018 is not even over

yet and you've had tremendous success. And I think it speaks to really the quality and caliber

of individuals that we have working on these. It also speaks to I think success of when you

actually put your money where your mouth is and what the city does when you say we want to

make this priority, and this is council priority 10, and this was former chair of this committee

that issued seven of his priority votes, something that we don't allow in the newer process, and

my one vote. But he made this solely his priority, right. And then we saw where we had still a

need to improve on it. And I put something forward a little over a year ago, and that helped to

create the funding for william jerry's position and to be able to then get that last component I

think internally to help and ultimately roll out the plan again better than I would have thought

specifically was telling bass one of the things I was asking for was a moratorium. Assuming we

won't make a huge dent for a couple of years and we need to do something to stop the

bleeding. And the recommendation was let's not do that yet. And the council didn't necessarily

want to go there. Staff was feeling so we didn't want to go there yet. And you proved it you

proved that you didn't want to go there. That you could have great success without a

moratorium and make a big enough dent. And I would agree with the conclusion on that, that

not only can we put the moratorium to rest, but we can also conclude this council priority is

complete and just saying that is exciting because there is not that many times that we can say

we sort of completed a priority that we sought out to complete. Albeit, there is still work to be

done. As you've heard because you recognize there are still a number of massage parlors you

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want to go out there and address, and I hope you don't take it as a burden, but rather we are

excited to get these updates. So coming back in a year to hear the continued success, to hear

maybe the growth in a partnership with a community service agency, similar community

solutions will be positive, positive. And I think hearing we were able to stick true to our goals,

which were one, as you mentioned, lieutenant, which was the landlord engagement which has

been successful, which I would love to see that continue, we didn't let that fall off. And certainly

the enforcement because we are going to need that. So I look forward being able to hear this

in a year and to hear those updates. I want to go back and make sure I covered all the notes

that I had jotted down. Oh, we have a speaker. So on the covert operations that we have done

this year, first off, how many total personnel do we have in the vice unit now? I know you said it

sounds like we'll be adding a couple more by the end of the year.

>> sergeant rick ga lay a, myself, then we have dan anderson who just came in last week. So

we have three.

>> and then one more?

>> we are hoping to get one more in December.

>> hoping sochlt we don't know that yet.

>> right.

>> and then so then over the summer on these covert operations, sergeant ga lay a, what

kind of bodes were able to get for stuff like that? Was that volunteer? You went out and sought

officers to fill in for those spots?

>> yes. So I would seek out officers who used to work the vice unit. And so they are already

used to our operations, how we conducts our investigations, so made it easy for me to tap in

with their experience and do them on a volume tary basis for those officers choik.

>> okay. Hopefully you can double your your unit by December.

>> I hope so.

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>> so, you know, again, staffing is coming back, still slowly, but coming back, and it's nice to

see, like the burglary prevention unit, street crimes. Tan hearing vice getting staffing. And

frankly I would agree that we knew was really the reason for a lot of crime increase through

tout the city. We just didn't have the personnel to address it. And criminals figure that out, right,

and a lot of these behind closed door kind of businesses, and whatever stuff that wasn't out in

front of your face even more so it was prevalent. So I was really happy to see some of the

results. First off, the websites that share the commentary of these illegal massage businesses

is pretty disgusting as you guys know to see the commentary there. I was really excited to see

the commentary that you displayed here having individuals make note of san José, literally

scene dead, the telling of the work that we've been doing. Unfortunate for cities like cupertino,

that's where to go, but I'm hoping that's cities that have reached out. And if not maybe there is

also a lessons learned or something that the department can put out or the chief can put out

that is just an offering, right, to other departments in the county that says here's some success

that we have seen in this. And if anybody is interested, please reach out to our vice unit. And

I'm sure you would share your best practices. And I would agree if we can address this county

wide and continue to address it, even the nine county bay area region, begin to address it in a

large enough area, as you said there is nowhere for you to go. And if we can tie to it, as

council member jim niz pointed enez pointed out, we can redirect into legal lines of business.

So I did have another question in regards to there were a lot of new applications forma sawing

business permits. so 57 in fact. And you said 13 upon application were denied cloik due to

illegal activity. How did we determine that? And what was it that triggered that?

>> do you want me to answer that? So what happened was those 13 were part of the combo I

was talking about where we had an under cover investigation and an owner education

program. So the owner contacted them and said, hey, you don't have the proper permits. You

are in violation of lease agreement. You are going to get shut down. Then what he they would

do is come rundown to the police department and a play for their permit. Well, we then shortly

after tested them, and sure enough, prostitution services were being offered, so they ended up

not getting their massage permit because it was denied.

>> okay. So I was thinking it was maybe a brand new application of some sort. And I was

curious how we might be able to flag it. That makes sense how we were able to flag those.

You also mention in regards to the registry, it sounds like we determined that already was in

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existence, so creating something new was not necessary and we feel like that registry is,

would go sufficiently then for our needs, correct?

>> correct.

>> okay. And last thing I know an um in of these businesses an of we shut them down, we

have seen them reopen. It's easy if they try to reopen under similar names but we also see at

names they transfer over to a family member or cousin. How are we able to monitor that? Or is

that something we will not be able to capture?

>> that's going to be very difficult to do. And I'm sure that's occurred where let's say we do an

undercover operation, shut a place down, then the same person gets a relative to open up the

same business in another location, and we don't know about it because we are not track that

new owner, we don't know who they are. Has that occurred? It's teen lirly possible it has. We

have not seen a the lo of massage parlors open in san José anymore. Really the information

we are getting is they are going out of the city of san José which is a good inc. This. So we are

just not seeing that as being an issue at this point. They are closing, staying closed, and we

are seeing very few massage businesses.

>> and to that same vane, this is why through the registry, I understand, and you showed the

demonstration, images of a nail salon, but I believe we are triggering barber shops anza lons

those names because we recognize they could be opening in a similar fashion?

>> yes.

>> so that's positive. So we are trying our best not to let any of those slip under our noses.

Okay. i'll invite up our public speaker, eric hernandez.

>> good afternoon. My name is eric hernandez. I live in district seven which is neighborhood

which is high in flux of prostitution, monterey and south first street so I'm aware of prostitution

issues. So to vice mayor comment it's a battle we've been fighting for years. We see it oven.

Parents watch it often. We've had issues with the pimps, sex workers or the vicks temps call

them daddies of them harassing patients of washington D.C. School, D.C. -- washington D.C.

Washington -- washington schools. So only way we can tackle this is with cannabis and card

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rooms is to regulate it. I don't know what the process is to regulate this. But some time ago

medical cannabis was out loud in the state. So only progressive way to regulate this and

negate any human trafficking is call for regulate this. So card rooms is putting in sex workers,

something that people will get uncomfortable with, but a way for the city to mitigate any harm

done to our neighborhoods. We are doing a lot of enforcement which I see. I want to do

enforcement. But enforcement is not the solution. So I hope at some point we can take on this

issue today, tomorrow, the next day. Thank you.

>> thank you. and we May have to lobby the state for that one as the city of san José won't be

able to enact something like that. Some May consider it aggressive and others regressive. One

last thing being that we will close this out and we have a motion to come back in a year to

bring with you a partner that we are able to partner with like community solutions to give us a

one year update. And additionally since we are closing out this priority issue, it should be cross

referenced so if I can add that be add today the motion.

>> yes. That can be added to the motion cross reference for council.

>> thank you. And then I'll personally follow up, but if you don't mind as well, sergeant ga lay

a, in regards to maybe getting it on the agenda in future meeting with lieutenant ta balldy for

adding the street prostitution.

>> will do.

>> great. Thank you.

>> okay. So that was the addition to the motion. Who was the seconder on the motion?

>> vice mayor. Are you okay with that edition?

>> yes.

>> okay so all in favor say aye.

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>> any opposed? None. Thank you for the presentation and I believe that brings us to open

forum. Seeing no comments for open forum, meeting is adjourned.