Every day, the City’s Incident Management Team (IMT) responding to homelessness deploys multi-departmental units across Sacramento that provide outreach and engagement to people experiencing homelessness while simultaneously enforcing City laws and ordinances.
These “Rapid Response” units pair outreach workers from the City’s Department of Community Response, who provide connection to homeless services, with IMPACT officers from the Sacramento Police Department, who primarily enforce City ordinances related to sidewalk obstruction, unlawful storage, unlawful camping and protecting critical infrastructure.
However, IMPACT officers will do more than enforce these ordinances when the situation demands it, said Brian Pedro, director of the Department of Community Response, who also leads the IMT.
“If officers encounter a subject with outstanding warrants, or if they observe other infractions of the law, they will take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of our residents,” Pedro said.
A Nov. 13 response to a 311 call for service underscores these efforts. A Rapid Response unit was working near Mack Road and Brookfield Drive when IMPACT officers detained a subject who had an outstanding felony warrant and another who was on formal probation. During a search of the subjects’ belongings, officers located and seized approximately 24 pounds of marijuana and 119 grams of methamphetamine as well as evidence of drug sales. Both subjects were arrested.
More recently, a Rapid Response unit responded to a 311 call for service in south Sacramento involving an encampment near a school. When the unit arrived, no one was near the site to claim the property there. While IMPACT officers were conducting an inventory, they located a Marlin rifle with no serial number as well as ammunition and various gun parts. The items were booked for disposal.
“The City of Sacramento is committed to protecting the health and safety of all of our residents, sheltered and unsheltered alike,” Pedro said. “People experiencing homelessness are often targeted because of their vulnerability – and this can even occur by others experiencing homelessness. It is the IMT’s responsibility to create the safest environment we can for everyone.”
The IMT coordinates staff and resources with several departments. In addition to the Department of Community Response and the Police Department, the IMT partners with the Sacramento Fire Department, Park Rangers, 311 and Animal Care, as well as private contractor Forensiclean, to maximize effectiveness.
One of the benefits the IMT provides is that its daily work frees up police and other City personnel, so they can respond to other calls for service from the community more quickly and efficiently, Pedro said.
Overall, the Sacramento Police Department continues to conduct extensive enforcement to address criminal activity within the city.
Between January 2023 and October 2024, the Sacramento Police Department made a total of 18,905 arrests. More than half of these (12,150) were for felonies, with 3,987 of those – nearly 33 percent – involving people who self-identified as experiencing homelessness. Among the 6,755 misdemeanor arrests, 2,074 – approximately 31 percent – also involved people who self-identified as experiencing homelessness.
For detailed information on the IMT’s outreach, cleanup and enforcement actions, please visit this data dashboard.
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