Top cop talks on day laborers

Costa Mesa Police Chief Chris Shawkey told an audience of officials and dignitaries from Orange County and Los Angeles on Thursday that although Costa Mesa has a handle on its issues with day laborers, its system is not perfect.

Shawkey joined a panel of four other Southland men who met at the Costa Mesa Hilton to discuss their respective problems with day laborers and the solutions they’ve implemented.

All of the men agreed that an uncontrolled population of day laborers caused complaints such as loitering, public urination and harassment in their cities.

Shawkey said that surveillance, stings and heavy enforcement, which Costa Mesa has tried in the past, are “clearly not the answer” to the city’s issues. The problem doesn’t go away; it just moves, he said.

“How does it get to be a law enforcement issue in the first place?” Shawkey asked. “It’s a social issue.”

For 12 years, Costa Mesa had a job center on the Westside, where mostly Latino laborers would gather to find work. Shawkey was instrumental in opening a similar center in Phoenix before he came here, but he thinks that it was a good decision to shut down Costa Mesa’s.

Mayor Eric Bever and Councilwoman Wendy Leece attended the discussion.

Bever said that Costa Mesa could learn some things from the city of Orange, which has a day-laborer center, a police officer dedicated to day laborers and a requirement that workers must show proof of eligibility to work in the United States.

“Our strategy is lacking some regards. Closing our job center detracted from our ability to enforce,” Bever said.

Although Leece, Bever and Shawkey all acknowledged that Costa Mesa still has some problems with day laborers, they all agree that the city has done a reasonable job dealing with the problem.

The notion that day laborers are creating a huge, uncontrolled problem in our city is contrived, according to Shawkey. He shared a complaint he received last month in which a person submitted a picture to prove that rowdy laborers congregated outside of a local Circle K market.

Shawkey realized it was fake because a sign in the photo listed the price of gas as $2.18 per gallon.

“People are out there trying to generate issues that aren’t even there,” Shawkey said.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.