Pat Williams on aftermath of Operation Falling Sun: One year after Operation Falling Sun, Desert Hot Springs Police Chief Pat Williams describes the aftermath of the massive police operation, and his outlook on the future of the city.
Desert Hot Springs police Chief Patrick Williams (right) assists Rene Olague (second from left) in arresting Jesse Vasquez for resisting a police officer in Desert Hot Springs on Monday, March 22. In the year since Operation Falling Sun, Desert Hot Springs leaders say they have beefed up the police department, resulting in a decrease in crime. / Jay Calderon The Desert Sun
Two passing children stop in their neighborhood to watch the arrest of a man who fled from authorities in Desert Hot Springs on Monday. The man was found to be in possession of marijuana, police said. / Jay Calderon The Desert Sun
Operation Falling Sun: One year later
Visit mydesert.com/fallingsunto check out The Desert Sun's original coverage of Operation Falling Sun on March 27, 2009, and the aftermath.
Desert Hot Springs Citizens on Patrol members Brian Meuse and Kent Andersen prepare for a shift. City officials say resident involvement in reporting crime after Operation Falling Sun is helping their efforts to make the city safer. / Colin Atagi the desert sun
Desert Hot Springs City Manager Rick Daniels talks on March 19 about the changes to his community in the year since Operation Falling Sun — a massive, multi-agency anti-gang effort. / Jay Calderon The Desert Sun
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Tired of reviewing the paperwork left behind by the city's nine previous police chiefs in nearly as many years, Desert Hot Springs police Chief Patrick Williams opted this week to go on his first patrol shift in more than eight months.
Within minutes, his police scanner buzzed with news that someone fled a police officer during a traffic stop — but then, just as quickly, a resident called to report a suspicious man jumping a fence.
When Williams arrived on scene, a second neighbor pointed him toward a vacant house. The chief hustled inside and moments later, walked out with the 18-year-old suspect under arrest.
In the days before residents became the eager allies of police, the arrest wouldn't have been that easy, Williams, 46, said.
He credits Operation Falling Sun — the largest police action of its kind in Southern California — that one year ago today unleashed more than 700 law enforcement officers onto Desert Hot Springs streets.
A $2.5 million military-style effort that pulled officers from 35 local, state and federal police agencies, it resulted in the arrests of 125 suspected gang members and parolees.
In the year since, Desert Hot Springs leaders say they have worked diligently to provide better services for the city's 26,000 residents — beefing up the police department, revamping the city's downtown, rehabbing rundown homes and passing a series of laws that crack down on where parolees and sex offenders can live.
It has worked, city leaders say: Crime rates have fallen more than 5 percent, with declines in almost every type of crime.
“Operation Falling Sun was a defining moment,” City Manager Rick Daniels said. “I think we're hitting our stride. I feel it.”
Still, Desert Hot Springs has a long way to go to overcome its reputation as the Coachella Valley's most crime-ridden, economically depressed and politically dysfunctional city.
Since Operation Falling Sun, the city continues to struggle with a 21 percent unemployment rate, has experienced three homicides within city limits, and on March 8 its high school landed on the list of the state's persistently lowest- achieving schools.
“There's no (criteria for evaluating this city) I can come up with that's good. Every indicator is ‘troubled, stressed community,'” Daniels said.
Nevertheless, city leaders are optimistic, given the successes of Operation Falling Sun, that they're on the right path toward lasting progress.
In the days leading up to the anniversary, The Desert Sun talked with city leaders, business owners, residents and a crime expert to determine how far Desert Hot Springs has come since Operation Falling Sun.
Their consensus: Operation Falling Sun was an effective launching point for changing the course of Desert Hot Springs — but it has a long road ahead.
Crime stats fall
Desert Hot Springs has long fought its reputation as a safe haven for criminals — an image sustained in large part by findings that nearly two-thirds of the convicted felons who reside in the Coachella Valley live there.
Nevertheless, armed with a new city manager and police chief, each hired in 2007, officials decided to try to rid Desert Hot Springs of some of its criminal element.
“The city was on its knees. I think it was taking its last breaths. We were about to lose that city,” Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said this week.
Last March, their efforts culminated in Operation Falling Sun, and continued in the months that followed with smaller sweeps targeting sex offenders, street drug dealers and more parolees.
Earlier this month, authorities obtained permanent court orders banning gang members from congregating in public.
In addition, the understaffed police department got a boost from Measure A, a ballot measure that passed in May. It increases residents' utility tax from 5 percent to 7 percent to raise additional money for public safety.
Due in part to that tax, the department has nearly doubled its sworn officers from 17 to 32 over the past three years.
These efforts are paying off, said Williams, who points to continued declines in violent and property crimes.
In all, Desert Hot Springs recorded 1,896 reports of violent and property crime last year. That's a more than 5 percent drop from 2008, and an 18 percent drop compared with three years ago.
“We can turn this around,” Williams said.
And, with what city leaders call “the worst of the worst” off the streets, there is now more time for police officers to devote to minor, nonviolent offenses.
“In the past,” Williams said, “our officers didn't have the luxury to do that.”
More than words
Operation Falling Sun was about far more than taking dozens of parolees off the streets, though, city leaders say.
Desert Hot Springs — a city that declared bankruptcy in 2001, fired a city manager in 2002 and paid a former police officer $47,500 in 2008 to settle a civil rights lawsuit — needs to rebuild itself anew.
“First and foremost, it's a tangible demonstration to the community that business as usual is over. We're changing the way we do business,” Williams said.
“We just want to continually interrupt criminal behavior,” said Daniels, whose office walls are lined with photos from Operation Falling Sun.
The sweeps sent a loud and clear message, said Dick Cromwell, 68, a former Desert Hot Springs councilman who has lived in the desert for 40 years.
“It was a masterful job of public relations, in my mind, as well as getting something done,” he said.
If a city is successful enough to crack down on crime, it must flaunt that accomplishment to thrive, said Robert Nash Parker, a sociology professor and co-director of the Robert Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at UC Riverside.
“That's the first step: To make it well-known that crime is declining, and that needs to continue for several years,” he said.
“Reputations are the hardest things to change. People remember things long after they're relevant.”
Residents join in
City leaders know that change can only happen when residents and their city representatives work together.
Voters helped the city set a new milestone last November, when they re-elected the mayor and two council members.
That was the first time in the city's 68-year history that a City Council has been re-elected as a group.
Many residents also stopped fearing retaliation and began to report criminal behavior to police because they “realize somebody's going to do something about it,” Daniels said.
Police have never been more responsive, and residents have developed a new confidence in calling them, said Dot Reed, 79, a 32-year Desert Hot Springs resident.
“I'll call them because I know that I'm going to get a response. You know they care and they're going to work on it. Before, they were only there, and their presence was not great,” Reed said, adding that she called police several weeks ago after someone broke into her car.
Police arrived within minutes, she said, and later delivered her wallet when it was found.
“This city has seen the biggest turnaround that could even be imagined. I wouldn't even know what to compare it to. It's just amazing, totally amazing,” Reed said.
Residents reported 21,256 crimes last year. That's up more than 6 percent from 2008.
“People have seen we're doing everything we can to make a difference, and it's not just lip service,” Williams said.
The number of Citizens on Patrol volunteers — a resident group that helps police patrol city streets and meet resident needs — more than doubled in the past year from 9 to 19.
Residents Kent Andersen, 57, and Brian Meuse, 44, signed up about two months ago and went on their first patrol Tuesday afternoon.
“(Operation Falling Sun) showed (officials) want to do something, but the police can't do it themselves,” Andersen said. “We're just a pair of extra eyes for the police department.”
Meuse, a husband and father of two, long wanted to work with police. He said he signed on after Operation Falling Sun because he believed city leaders were serious about cleaning up the city.
“Getting involved, you have a one-on-one relationship with officers, and it makes officers want to be here,” he said.
That budding relationship is key to a better future for Desert Hot Springs, Parker said.
“The bad guys will start to figure out, ‘Hey, this is a community that has its act together,'” he said. “‘Maybe we shouldn't hang out here.'”
The long road ahead
Mayor Yvonne Parks prefers to focus on her city's future rather than analyze the shortcomings of its past.
We have endured some of the most difficult days, but Desert Hot Springs is defined by its resiliency and its rich sense of community spirit, she said during her State of the City address on Wednesday.
Accomplishment breeds confidence, and confidence breeds stability, but there is so much more to accomplish. We must continue the progress that we started. Desert Hot Springs is evolving, Parks said.
City leaders say they know they need to devote more energy to economic stability and recruiting new businesses.
If you start to see the money coming to town, to me, that's the next step. When people are willing to invest money, that's a demonstration of what others think of our efforts, police Chief Pat Williams said.
One year after Operation Falling Sun, the city boasts dramatic changes.
But the road will be a long one to truly overhaul Desert Hot Springs and its troubled reputation, said Robert Nash Parker, a sociology professor and co-director of the Robert Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at UC Riverside.
This is not a short-term prospect; you're not going to turn (the city) around in one or two years, he said.
It will take dedication. Otherwise, you're just gonna have it go back the way it was.
Kate McGinty and Colin Atagi
Beyond the gangs
One year after Operation Falling Sun, plenty of battles still await Desert Hot Springs economics, education and health care, to name a few.
We intended to start serious change, but we keep getting hit, City Manager Rick Daniels said.
The economic hardship that has affected the nation seems exaggerated in what is an already impoverished city, officials said.
Desert Hot Springs has a 21 percent unemployment rate, the second-highest in the Coachella Valley behind Coachella and six points above Riverside County's average.
That also drags the per-capita income down to under $12,000 less than half of the county average.
Likely a direct result, the city also has 181 foreclosure properties, or one in every 120 housing units, according to Realty Trac, which ranks Desert Hot Springs as having medium foreclosure problems.
And, after being denied a federal grant to build a health clinic, the city still only has one full-time doctor for 26,500 residents.
Perhaps the largest financial hit to Desert Hot Springs came when the state Redevelopment Agency billed it $3.4 million as part of a statewide effort to balance the budget.
There goes the new library, and it could delay the Boys & Girls Club and the new fire station, Daniels said. It slows our progress. It delays this backlog of improvements that needed to be done.
Kate McGinty and Colin Atagi
Desert Hot Springs: A year in review
2009
March 27: About 700 law enforcement personnel converge on the city to arrest 125 parolees and suspected gang members.
July 17: Law enforcement personnel target 90 suspected gang members, parolees and probationers during a gang-injunction compliance sweep that includes Desert Hot Springs.
Aug. 5: The City Council bans firearms and ammunition on city property.
Sept. 26: More than 500 residents celebrate the reopening of Mission Springs Soccer Park, which underwent a $1.4 million renovation project.
Oct. 1: Desert Hot Springs breaks ground on a $13.8 million, 27,000-square-foot facility dubbed the Desert Hot Springs Community Health and Wellness Center. It will provide a new clubhouse for the kids, healthy living programs for city residents, a teen center, a 25-meter pool and a gym.
Oct. 10: A 45-year-old man is shot and killed after a brief, confrontation outside the Vons grocery store, 14-200 Palm Drive.
Oct. 15: The city breaks ground on a $3.5 million plan to overhaul the look of downtown and turn Palm Drive and Pierson Boulevard into a so-called vortex.
November: The city enacts two zoning ordinances that crack down on where parolees and sex offenders can live each measure is a first of its kind in the Coachella Valley, the police chief said.
Nov. 14: The city hosts the grand opening of the Henry Vellore Lozano Community Center, named after a Marine who prosecutors say was shot and killed by a gang member. Officials said the naming ceremony was a symbolic reclamation of Guy J. Tedesco Park, once considered the domain of the gangs.
December: Desert Hot Springs hires a consultant to plan the inaugural World Music and Wellness Festival, which is scheduled for Oct. 9-10, 2010. Officials hope it will draw as many as 10,000 spectators and provide a welcome economic boost to hotels, restaurants and other retailers.
Dec. 3: The state approves a plan for Desert Hot Springs to annex 4,000 acres of land that will extend its southern border to Interstate 10. The city must secure public safety funding before it takes over.
Dec. 19: A 19-year-old male is shot and killed, and two others wounded, during what police call a botched drug deal near Desert Hot Springs High School.
2010
Feb. 2: The city approves a building-use agreement with the Boys & Girls Club of Coachella Valley, which cleared the way for the city's clubhouse to become part of national Boys & Girls Club organization instead of an independent nonprofit group.
Feb. 16: City Council approves an ordinance requiring landlords to sign up for an eight-hour class on crime-free housing, led by the Police Department.
Feb. 18: The Desert Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce hosts its first spa tour, a sold-out event with more than 400 participants.
March: The first Earth Fest at Cabot's Pueblo Museum is announced and scheduled for April 24. It will feature an all-star musical lineup and a chance for local artists to show off their work.
March 3: The city lays off four employees as part of what it called a conservative fiscal management plan to balance the budget for next year.
March 9: Police officials announce they served permanent court injunctions on gang members, banning them from congregating in certain public areas.
March 9: The city unveils the first house completed in its new Neighborhood Renewal Program.
March 11: The city's Redevelopment Agency hosts a workshop for contractors and suppliers to learn how they can team up with the city to renovate homes.
March 18: A 27-year-old man was found fatally stabbed in the home of two friends. Authorities are quick to assure residents it was not a random act. One of the home's residents is soon arrested and charged with murder.
