Clovis police department introduced the Crime-Free Housing program at the Clovis City Council meeting on Monday, June 3, but a vote hasn’t yet been made on the proposal.
Cpl. Chris Berna said the original idea was to put the item on the agenda and bring it in for a vote on Monday, but plans changed at the last minute.
“When it hit the agenda on Friday, we were contacted by a couple groups who we hadn’t met with prior,” Berna said. “They raised some concerns about some of the verbiage in the ordinance and so we want to meet with them prior to taking this to council.”
The Crime-Free Housing Program requires building managers to be trained by police and to enforce background checks.
However, Berna said the groups expressed concerns about the language regarding background checks and about the required training.
The police department plans to come back to the council after clearing up the language.
“We request for the item to be continued, so we can go back and have some further meetings with these additional groups just to give us more time before we can bring it back to the council,” Clovis police said to the council.
Berna said the Crime-Free Housing Program started back in the early 90s out of Mesa, Arizona, with the goal of reducing crime by reducing gangs and criminal activity on multi-housing properties.
“What we are looking to introduce is not necessarily a program that’s already created in one of these other areas,” Berna said. “It’s something that we’re trying to do on our own that would benefit our citizens, that would benefit our property owners and managers and benefit the city itself.”
Clovis police said they’ve been working on the program for several years, working with the city attorney, seeking feedback from property managers, property owners and builders.
Council member Vong Mouanoutoua said it’s important to have the apartment managers join the discussion when the item comes back to the council.
“They’re the ones who will be partnering with us. It will be very helpful to hear from them,” Mouanoutoua said.