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Pinellas Park Police Department CRA Team in front of CRPU substation. when they eat there. As a partnering resource for the CRPU, food pantries give free food to homeless shelters and a thrift stores gives clothing. Businesses are willing to donate small things, shirts and pants. playing in or near this wooded area containing defecation, urination, drugs, and alcohol, etc. The team left a CRPU offer of services card in each empty tent asking them to leave or call CRPU for help. The homeless are very territorial and like to be in settings they know. When the CRPU team transports people to shelter, they take their property too, and now have a truck to do so. Homeless people who want help are placed in shelters. Offers are made to get them to their families, with bus fare and airfare taken care of. Also available to the CRPU are cold-weather, whole-night shelters in churches. Here they are given a mat, snack, hot chocolate, and coffee in an open area. There are also counselors and separate baths. Overall, the CRPU offcers have proven to be successful in helping homeless people be more successful. Jim Weiss is a retired lieutenant from the Brook Park, Ohio, Police Department and a frequent contributor to LAW and ORDER. Mickey Davis is a California-based writer and author. LaO Post your comments on this story by visiting www.lawandordermag.com Working with the Homeless Between 60 and 75 homeless people live in Pinellas Park at any given time. Of these homeless, 31 percent have physical/ medical or HIV/AIDS issues; 44 percent have mental/emotional issues; 36 percent have alcohol/drug abuse issues; and 15 percent have co-occurring mental health and alcohol/drug abuse issues. CRPU Offcer Steve Vangeli and a social services counselor from Directions of Mental Health team together. Directions for Mental Health, Inc., and Operation PAR, Inc., a provider of comprehensive behavioral health services, are two contracted, grant-funded social services of long standing that work with county and state social services and the police. If the CRPU responds to a violent altercation or robbery in progress, the counselor remains in an unmarked police car. The unit's successes have included the cleanup and landscaping of wooded, privately owned property. In some cases, CRPU-initiated cooperation involves having the city clean up the property initially, with the understanding that the private property owner will maintain and clean it up in the future. The team also works to help place homeless people into shelters or get them off the streets. Between 18 and 20 percent of the homeless have no interest in going into shelters where there are rules such as no alcohol or drug abuse, or no admittance when under the infuence of either. On foreclosed property, the police department has written agreements with the banks or property owners to enforce trespassing laws. First, a verbal warning is given. If this is not complied with, a written warning is given. On the third approach, enforcement action is taken. One day, vacant and camoufaged tents of the homeless were found. The entire area was littered with trash. Neighboring homeowners certainly would not want their children Click on EInfo at - www.lawandordermag.com reader service #18 www.lawandordermag.com 43