San Jose police continue to issue handwritten tickets to homeless people even after the department switched to electronic citations — a practice that is raising questions.
Four homeless residents encamped near Cherry Avenue along the Guadalupe River said police regularly patrol the area and give out tickets for trespassing and littering. The behavior has those helping the unhoused residents wondering if the information is being logged or used as a scare tactic on an already vulnerable population.
Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender Jake Rhodes, who makes regular trips to homeless encampments, said the citations he’s seen tend to be handwritten, and he’s seen more than 20 over the past few years for violations like trespassing.
“I have been wondering for a long time about this practice. I have no idea what the (police) are doing,” Rhodes told San José Spotlight. “It didn’t sit right with me. Winds are definitely changing about the homeless population in San Jose, so there’s ways that the court system can be used to arrest people.”
He showed this news organization a picture of an illegible ticket given to a homeless person that appeared to be from January of this year — with no court date information.
Failure to show up to a court date could result in a bench warrant leading to an arrest. However, when cited homeless residents ask Rhodes to check their court date or if they have a warrant, Rhodes said he’s been unable to find corresponding court dates, filed cases or warrants.
“I don’t know if the DA is declining filing,” he said. “I don’t know if the city attorney is declining filing. I don’t know if the officers aren’t turning in a name. I don’t know what’s going on.”
Citations for trespassing, nuisance and littering are handled by the city attorney’s office since the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office only prosecutes misdemeanor and felony offenses, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Brandon Cabrera said.
“All muni-code, city ordinances and citations are handled by the respective city attorney’s office,” Cabrera told San José Spotlight. “As such, my office does not currently prosecute these offenses, nor do we have any relevant data to provide.”
However, his office is in talks with the city on how to handle the new policy pushed by Mayor Matt Mahan that would arrest homeless people for trespassing if they refuse shelter after three offers.
City Attorney Nora Frimann did not respond to requests for comment on how her office handles trespassing and littering citations.
Paper or electronic tickets
Officers with the San Jose Police Department are required to issue electronic citations, a SJPD spokesperson said. They acknowledged there are certain instances where paper citations may be given out, such as when the machine fails. A copy is given to the individual and the original is filed away at the records unit. A final approved copy is sent to the court liaison, the spokesperson said.
“Paper citations are eventually entered into the records management system, but the process is not expedient,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight. “Paper citations are tracked in an internal management system that is not accessible to the crime analysis unit who fulfilled your initial data request inquiry.”
A records request from this news organization to SJPD asking for the number of citations around Cherry Avenue for trespassing, loitering, littering and noise from the end of last year to date came back with no results.
“It is very likely the individual who you first spoke with that provided you with this info alleging they were issued a trespass citation was in fact actually issued a citation for something other than trespassing,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson reiterated handwritten citations don’t “fall through the cracks.”
“All paper citations still get processed and sent to (a) court liaison, regardless if the original recipient loses their copy or not,” the spokesperson said.
A search on the county court website for the people San José Spotlight interviewed showed no recent citations.
Different system
A worker at the police records unit told San José Spotlight all paper citations are stored in the records unit, and should be entered electronically so courts are aware of the violation before the scheduled hearing — which is normally 45 days from the date of citation.
If the citation is not entered electronically and the person shows up for court, the courts turn that person away and a new court date will be issued via mail, the worker said. Since homeless people don’t have addresses, a bench warrant will be issued and police will see it the next time they encounter the person’s name, he said.
The records department prioritizes entering handwritten citations for homeless people, the worker said. Though he no longer handles that type of work, when he did, he used to see about six to seven citations for homeless people every week, ranging from trespassing to being drunk in public, he said.
One homeless resident who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons told San José Spotlight police showed up at his tent around February and handed him a handwritten ticket for trespassing. The officer told him to appear in court, but he had no way to get there. The homeless resident said he threw the ticket away.
“They can’t force money out of you if you don’t have it,” he told San José Spotlight.
Kyle, a homeless resident who didn’t want his last name printed for privacy reasons, said police come to Cherry Avenue regularly. He’s said he’s gotten three tickets for trespassing.
When he showed up to court one time on a trespassing citation, he said his case wasn’t even on the docket.
“(Police) come in and just start taking everything. They take (our) food, they take our clothes,” he told San José Spotlight. “They just give us tickets for no reason.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or joyce_speaks on X.
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