Pasco Sheriff's Office, code enforcement team on quality-of-life issues

Pasco County citizens have cited quality-of-life issues as one of their main priorities for county government to preserve and improve. The county's ordinances that govern many quality-of-life matters, such as vehicle parking and refuse disposal, must be enforced daily.

Law enforcement agencies are very much aware of the connection between a community's quality of life and the level of criminal activity. For this reason, Sheriff Chris Nocco recently directed a number of Citizen Service Unit members to begin training as code enforcement volunteers, assisting the county in the review and management of code violations.

The CSU is a volunteer unit of the Pasco Sheriff's Office created more than 10 years ago. These hard-working volunteers donate tens of thousands of hours to their community each year, handling a number of tasks, such as traffic flow at minor crashes or answering minor calls for service from Pasco citizens. This helps to alleviate the workload of Pasco law enforcement deputies. This new responsibility of code enforcement mirrors the type of service the unit has been providing to our community for years.

The new code enforcement volunteers are supervised by sheriff's Cpl. Arthur Madden, who oversees the training of four volunteers. The group could grow to eight in the near future. They are being trained by Pasco County's code enforcement staff and the County Attorney's Office.

Pasco code enforcement officials receive approximately 11,000 calls for service a year. On one day in December, code enforcement officer Amalio Vera was making initial calls for service and following up on previous calls for which he had made prior contact and given warnings. Vera is a former New York City police officer and has been a code enforcement officer here for two years. On this day, he was also training a new code enforcement volunteer, Ward Price, who has been in the Citizens Service Unit for six years.

Code enforcement officers are assigned areas of the county to respond to calls for service and Vera is tasked with southwest Pasco, including Holiday and New Port Richey. When he began his day, Vera had nine calls for service waiting for him. By midday, that total jumped to 23, bringing his total load of new and open cases to 64. Like law enforcement calls for service, code enforcement complaints are a never-ending stream from citizens expecting their calls be handled quickly and efficiently. This heavy caseload is why the CSU volunteers will be a welcome addition of support for the code enforcement officers.

There are some differences in the way that county code enforcement officers and Sheriff's Office deputies investigate code violations. Code enforcement officers must first make an on-site inspection of the violation and issue a warning to allow the offender time to clean up or correct the violation before a citation can be issued.

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On the other hand, a deputy can cite a violation on the spot without any prior notification. This is not a normal procedure, but is often useful during a criminal investigation.

Just as law enforcement agencies have crime databases to record the history of criminal violations by address, citizen and criminal activity, code enforcement officers have their own database to record and monitor code violations. This vital database is used to enter, monitor and close out code violation complaints. It is also useful to see the history behind an address or individual's previous violations for possible increased court penalties for repeat violators.

This database can also be useful for law enforcement investigations to determine the history of an individual or address, such as violence against code enforcement officers. Oftentimes, the code enforcement database will contain information on prior complaints and violations where the law enforcement database will not.

The CSU volunteers will soon begin handling code violation complaints on their own. Those complaints will first be reviewed by Madden and then assigned by him. The CSU volunteers will identify and address the code issues by way of education and warnings. Citations issued by CSU members may be a possibility in the future.

"Unfortunately, there is often a house or business that continues to have code problems in the community," said Nocco. "Partnering with code enforcement is an innovative way to fight crime and target the environment, such as a drug house, that has allowed criminal activity to persist. This is a new way that our agency can improve the quality of life for our citizens."

Kevin Doll is the community relations director for the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Pasco County citizens have cited quality-of-life issues as one of their main priorities for county government to preserve and improve. The county's ordinances that govern many quality-of-life matters, such as vehicle parking and refuse disposal, must be enforced daily.

Law enforcement agencies are very much aware of the connection between a community's quality of life and the level of criminal activity. For this reason, Sheriff Chris Nocco recently directed a number of Citizen Service Unit members to begin training as code enforcement volunteers, assisting the county in the review and management of code violations.

CSU is a volunteer unit of the Pasco Sheriff's Office created more than 10 years ago. These hard-working volunteers donate tens of thousands of hours to their community each year, handling a number of tasks, such as traffic flow at minor crashes or answering minor calls for service from Pasco citizens. This helps to alleviate the workload of Pasco law enforcement deputies. This new responsibility of code enforcement mirrors the type of service the unit has been providing to our community for years.

The new code enforcement volunteers are supervised by sheriff's Cpl. Arthur Madden, who currently oversees the training of four volunteers. The group could grow to eight in the near future. They are being trained by Pasco County Code Enforcement staff and the County Attorney's Office.

Pasco code enforcement officials receive approximately 11,000 calls for service a year. On one day in December, code enforcement officer Amalio Vera was making initial calls for service and following up on previous calls for which he had made prior contact and warnings on. Vera is a former New York City police officer and has been a code enforcement officer here for two years. On this day, he was also training a new code enforcement volunteer, Ward Price, who has been in the Citizens Service Unit for six years.

Code enforcement officers are assigned areas of the county to respond to calls for service and Vera is tasked with southwest Pasco, including Holiday and New Port Richey. When he began his day, Vera had nine calls for service waiting for him. By midday, that total jumped to 23, bringing his total load of new and open cases to 64. Like law enforcement calls for service, code enforcement complaints are a never-ending stream from citizens expecting their calls be handled quickly and efficiently. This heavy caseload is why the CSU volunteers will be a welcome addition of support for the code enforcement officers.

There are some differences in the way that county code enforcement officers and Sheriff's Office deputies investigate code violations. Code enforcement officers must first make an on-site inspection of the violation and issue a warning to allow the offender time to clean up or correct the violation before a citation can be issued.

On the other hand, a deputy can cite a violation on the spot without any prior notification. This is not a normal procedure, but is often useful during a criminal investigation.

Just as law enforcement agencies have crime databases to record the history of criminal violations by address, citizen and criminal activity, code enforcement officers have their own database to record and monitor code violations. This vital database is used to enter, monitor and close out code violation complaints. It is also useful to see the history behind an address or individual's previous violations for possible increased court penalties for repeat violators.

This database can also be useful for law enforcement investigations to determine the history of an individual or address, such as violence against code enforcement officers. Oftentimes, the code enforcement database will contain information on prior complaints and violations where the law enforcement database will not.

The CSU volunteers will soon begin handling code violation complaints on their own. Those complaints will first be reviewed by Cpl. Madden and then assigned by him. The CSU volunteers will identify and address the code issues by way of education and warnings. Citations issued by CSU members may be a possibility in the future.

"Unfortunately, there is often a house or business that continues to have code problems in the community," said Sheriff Nocco. "Partnering with code enforcement is an innovative way to fight crime and target the environment, such as a drug house, that has allowed criminal activity to persist. This is a new way that our agency can improve the quality of life for our citizens."

Kevin Doll is the community relations director for the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.