department what's especially great about the s t d homeless outreach teams is that we designed them to fully integrate the best practice of community policing the enforcement of the rule of law and the decriminalization efforts of diversion and deployment of social services needed to protect and serve the at risk population of homeless individuals as part of the development of that integrated mission my assignment was to conduct a nationwide review of law and policy to develop a program that was truly the start o make sure that our program was developed consistent with the best practices available along with that we conducted extensive training through in service and legal bulletins to make sure all personnel were informed of the program and the protections that it provides for homeless individuals in our community and i go back to that again thought as part of the development of the service of a police department almost all ridge team the chief assigned me to conduct a national legal and policy review of similar programs throughout the country to ensure that our program met and exceeded the best practices available petey's award winning program the leverage of the deployment of existing social service resources in the community to enable officers to educate about the social services that are available to homeless individuals individuals about the resources that are available to them encourage almost individuals to take part in those resources and enforce the criminal code that's been developed according to national standards and best practices  as petey's award winning program and leverage is that employment of existing community resources into the hot program architecture and able in officers to educate homeless individuals about the social research service resources that are available to them encourage referral and diversion to those resources and unable enforcement of a enabling officers to educate homeless individuals about the social service resources that are available to them in the community encourage referral and diversion to those resources and a naval officers to enforce the criminal code the three and we're proud to be able to present our program as a best practice throughout our community throughout our state and throughout the country so other communities can take part in what we see as initiatives criminal codes and k we believe that sort of police departments home with outreach team program is a model that other communities can adopt throughout the nation as it is based on a national policy and legal review and  we believe that the sarasota police department's home without reach team program is a model that other communities can adopt throughout the nation as it is based on a national policy and legal review that has created the start we believe that there are sort of police departments homeless outreach team program is a model that other communities throughout the nation can adopt because it works it's based on a national policy and legal review and it's readily implemented in your jurisdiction without considerable resources being expended by your local government are program incorporates the strategies of both pre arrest and post arrest diversion this is something the united united states department of justice has recommended through the united states interagency council on homelessness the program incorporates pre arrest diversion through the deployment of existing community service social service resources on scene that a homeless individual can except in lieu of citation then the program also offers post arrest diversion through a court supervised diversion program where homeless individuals who are cited can accept those same social services and reengage them as part of that diversion process yeah ok across the country to develop what i consider model ordinances here in sarasota that addressed some of the issues that play out on the streets of our city every day at the same time these ordinances offer protection to an individual cited under those ordinances for alternative that they're ok at the same time these ordinances offer protections to and of individuals cited under those ordinances for the opportunity for reversal were seizing the city and at the same time these ordinances offer protections to individuals cited them giving them the opportunity for referral and diversion to social services in lieu of citation we believe this is an important best practice one that the department of justice has identified through the united states interagency council on homelessness how does a lawyer get involved in homosassa reach well one of the things the chief thought very important was to conduct a national legal and policy review and make sure our ordinances were the best available in the development of our and it says we looked across the country at different models and we've noted a year over year decline in the homeless population our city of over thirty percent and over a two year period we noticed that we documented over sixty percent decline through the department of housing and urban development point in time survey to me this is an exciting and amazing opportunity to be a part of that success along with the patrol division captain the chief of police and everyone here and i speedy has an interval part of implementing operationalizing that's very successful program