The Trash Task Force was created in April of 1995 to work on combating the problem. One component of the program is the hiring of off duty police officers to enforce the illegal dumping ordinance . They are supervised by a retired City police detective. Almost everybody knows what it's like to be a victim of graffiti vandalism . Graffiti makes most people angry when they see it in their neighborhood or community.
Many people believe that graffiti means that gangs are moving into their neighborhood.
However, no matter what the source, the City of Oxnard has a zero-tolerance policy for graffiti vandals. Open-air drug markets are a major concern for some sites, while others tackled that issue long ago and are now focusing on cleaning up their alleys. Many problems may work together to plaque a community, but EOWS wants to measure which problems are of greatest concern. The information will be used by EOWS to concentrate on locating and providing resources to help sites in the future. Chances are these businesses pulled out their investment and closed shop because the deterioration of the neighborhood's quality of life was less than acceptable to the business owners.