The Associated Students External Vice President for Local Affairs hosted a Halloween town hall on Oct. 28 to discuss how Halloween county ordinances — including strict curfews on the weekends before and after the holiday — affect the Isla Vista community. Attendees raised concerns over the ordinances, restorative justice and a University of California mask-ban policy.
Attendees posed questions about the mask-ban policy, the suspension of the restorative justice program, and Halloween-related ordinances. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Every year from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4, ordinances on noise go into effect around Halloween. From 6 p.m. to 7 a.m., no noise, including live and recorded music played outside, is allowed. This year, the ordinance surrounds the weekends before and after Halloween, though in previous years the ordinance only fell on the weekend closest to Halloween. When the holiday falls on a Thursday or Friday, it is typical for the county to extend the ordinance to both weekends, according to county officials.
“It’s from the 26th of October to the 4th of November. That’s in the law. So it doesn’t change every year, and I don’t have the ability to decide on a whim when to start enforcing it and when to stop enforcing it,” I.V. Foot Patrol (IVFP) Lieutenant Garrett TeSlaa said. “Sometimes that does fall over the course of two weekends, or it’ll span the weekend before or the weekend after Halloween, as it does this year.”
Panelists included representatives from IVFP, UC Police Department (UCPD), Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD), the UCSB Police Accountability Board and the UCSB Office of Student Life. External Vice President for Local Affairs Owen Meyers told the Daily Nexus that the town hall took place after the first weekend of ordinances because it was the only time the panelists could all come together this month.
Panelists were asked questions through an anonymous Google form or directly from attendees.
Attendees primarily asked questions about restorative justice, a program where students can get nonviolent misdemeanor charges waived from their record and avoid paying a fee by taking classes and participating in community service. In May, the program was suspended on Deltopia — UCSB’s annual unsanctioned street festival which had 20,000-30,000 attendees last year — to community backlash.
“We operate and will continue to operate in the belief that participation in Deltopia is inherently against the spirit of restorative justice,” TeSlaa said. “It’s our position that Deltopia, at such a scale, at such a drain on our emergency resources, participating in Deltopia is against that ethos of community spirit and being a good community member. And so that’s why [the restorative justice program is] suspended.”
He said the suspension was “discouraging activity from Deltopia last year.” The 2024 Deltopia had a record number of medical emergency response calls and citations issued, and attendance levels matched pre-pandemic numbers. When asked if the restorative justice program suspension would continue this year, TeSlaa said IVFP does not yet know what deployment will look like on Deltopia but that the suspension would be “again on the table.”
The panelists also highlighted efforts from last year to distribute naloxone, a fast-working drug to reverse overdose, before and during Deltopia. Law enforcement representatives noted the circulation of opioids and opioid use, including fentanyl, as a top concern.
The number of reported sexual assaults is higher than previous years, TeSlaa said after a question about sexual assault investigations. He emphasized that IVFP tries to conduct their investigations with empathy in a “survivor-first” model.
“What we want to do is learn from the survivors’ perspective. How do they feel safe? How do they want to see that case and proceed? And then we try to coordinate with them and other resources to make sure that they feel comfortable with the progress in the case at the pace that they want to proceed,”UCPD Chief of Police Alex Yao said.
The IVCSD partnered with UCPD for the interpersonal violence investigation program in 2018. Due to the partnership, there is a designated interpersonal violence investigator through the IVCSD who uses “trauma-informed strategies” and collaborates with crisis counseling organizations UCSB Campus Advocacy, Resources & Education (C.A.R.E.) center and Standing Together to End Sexual Assault (STESA).
“People need to know that when they come forward, they’re going to be taken seriously, and number two, that if they come forward, there’s the opportunity for accountability,” IVCSD Director Spencer Brandt said. “And I think that this program has really embodied both of those things.”
Brandt said that the program might have helped increase the reporting of these crimes.
“In this way, they’ve been able to increase the reporting. And we know over the years that it has slightly gone up, and sometimes that, in a way, is a sign of the system healing, getting a little bit better, because it means more people that we know are having these horrifying experiences are able to come forward and feel like coming forward is something that will make a difference,” Brandt said.
When panelists were asked how they viewed the role of peer-led safety initiatives as a supplement to policing, panelists agreed on the importance of peer-led programs, such as University of California in Isla Vista, a community safety program where student volunteers offer snacks, water and escort services at tents in Isla Vista on the weekends.
“[Peers] know better what’s going on in your community than anyone else — you have a closer grasp of who’s involved and what the issues are, and so it’s just so much better if you could deal with it yourself,” TeSlaa said. “I see the relieving of police duties as a secondary consequence, rather than the primary one, because it’s a chance for you to be in charge of your life and your community. And I think that’s the way forward, and I think the more you can take on the better.”
Participants also asked questions about the UC new mask ban policy, which prohibits the use of masks to conceal one’s identity when participating in illegal activities.
The policy came after the UC Office of the President (UCOP) issued guidelines in August to each campus on time, place and manner policies.
Yao said that the ban isn’t in place to prevent protesting but rather prevent someone from wearing a mask to conceal their identity when committing a student conduct violation or legal violation.
“In regards to UCOP’s guideline regarding banning the mask, it’s not a flat-out banning of the masks,” Yao said. “It’s only banning the masks in certain situations where the person is either committing a crime or is suspected by the university policy if they refuse to identify themselves in use of masking or facial covering.”
Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Life & Belonging Katya Armistead said she is one of the first responders whenever there is a student demonstration as part of the Demonstration Resource Team, which consists of “trained staff members from across campus,” according to a UCSB Student Life webpage. They function to get a neutral witness perspective, inform protestors and onlookers about their rights and coordinate with law enforcement and protestors when there is an immediate threat to health or safety.
“I don’t need to know [a student protestor’s] identity. That’s not what protest and activism is about. It’s when there [are] health and safety concerns, and that’s when hiding the identity is a problem, and there has not been a problem with that,” Armistead said.
The Halloween ordinances will continue until Nov. 4.
A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Oct. 31, 2024, print edition of the Daily Nexus.
