In 2005, the O.C. Register did a well researched story into the quality of law enforcement throughout the County. Santa Ana scored one star out of four. The O.C. Register found Santa Ana has one of the slowest response times to emergency calls in the County. It also has a poor rate of crime solving, bad community relations and a host of other issues like letting victim's families slip through the cracks.
Consider Norma Diaz, whose husband was fatally shot outside their Camille Street home Aug. 17, 2002. Diaz’s husband, Antonio, was a crucial witness against a man convicted a day earlier of attempted murder.
Antonio Diaz Palacios’ death is one of the unsolved cases contributing to Santa Ana’s status as the worst among the county’s largest cities for solving homicides. Half of the killings here remain a mystery.
Spanish-speaking Santa Ana homicide detectives talked with Diaz once, the day of the shooting. But they stopped trying to contact her after being told she had moved to Mexico.
Actually, Diaz and her seven children had gone to bury her husband. They were back within a month, unbeknownst to investigators.
For years, Diaz, who works in a factory making labels, has been scratching her head wondering what happened to the detectives and the investigation. She keeps a creased Santa Ana police business card in her wallet, behind a family picture. Diaz, 35, called the number on the card three times, but each time got an answering machine. She was too shy to leave a message.
Before his death, Antonio Diaz Palacios, 38, had fretted that he would be killed for testifying against Saturnino Centeno, who was convicted of shooting at his wife. Diaz’s family believes his fears came to pass.
But the case has gone cold. There are no leads, police say – and that makes Norma Diaz nervous.
"It’s hard because I don’t know if one of my family is going to get hurt, not knowing who it is," she said.
Santa Ana homicide investigators acknowledge the misstep that has put them out of touch with the family.
"I feel there was a misunderstanding between the family not being able to get a hold of us and us assuming they were gone. I feel bad," detective Frank Fajardo said. "Nothing sucks more than having an unsolved case on your desk."
Detective Louie Martinez said despite the city’s low rating in solving homicides, no one can tell him that he is not dedicated or working hard.
Overall, Santa Ana is safer now than it was five years ago, but not by much. The rate of violent crimes per 10,000 people has dropped by 1 percent in Santa Ana.
Chief Walters didn't like the sunshine of the Register to be shown on his leadership. Walters took umbrage at things like response times, crime solving rates and other quantifiable measures being used to rate his agency.
Chief Paul Walters said the statistics capture only a small part of his department.
"There’s a whole host of police services that aren’t measured in your report," Walters said.
See link for more info.
http://www.ocregister.com/investigations/policereport/index.php
Editorial Note: Santa Ana police officers are some of the best around. They have a tough city to police. They do what they can with what they have.
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