Lieutenant Luke Scown of the Arcadia Police Department gave the council an update Wednesday on the department’s Community Ambassador Program, a non‑enforcement outreach team that responds to non‑emergency calls, connects residents to services, supports businesses and does street‑level beautification work.

“Community ambassadors are a group of kind and compassionate individuals,” Scown said, quoting lead ambassador Royal Hunter. He emphasized the program’s role as a bridge between residents, service providers and city departments and repeatedly stressed ambassadors are not a security or law‑enforcement force: “They’re not there to tell on people,” he said.

Scown presented three years of program statistics reported by the ambassadors: roughly 21 calls to police dispatch this year, nearly 100 call‑outs to public works, more than 1,000 business check‑ins this year, roughly 4,000 interactions with tourists and, he said, more than 4,000 contacts with people experiencing homelessness. He and the ambassadors track litter removal as well: the team reported collecting thousands of five‑gallon buckets of trash this year and the lieutenant said the three‑year total equated to an estimated nearly 30 tons of trash removed, based on internal tallies. He also described the training program—about a week of classroom training followed by field shadowing—and said ambassadors receive de‑escalation training and are instructed to contact police for incidents beyond their scope.

Scown said the ambassadors respond to neighbor and business requests for non‑emergency assistance (for example, moving along someone blocking a doorway), help people access services such as ID and voucher assistance, and escalate issues to public works when appropriate. He described the program area as generally Seventh Street to Eighteenth Street and the highway to J Street, and said ambassadors have authority to assist outside that area as needed. Scown also said the city plans to hire three additional part‑time ambassadors and expand coverage into the Valley West neighborhood while maintaining presence downtown.

Council members praised the program and asked about staffing and training; Scown said new hires will be part time and the three new positions are intended to focus primarily on the Valley West expansion while maintaining downtown coverage. No formal action was required; the report served as a staff update and notice of planned recruitment.

Why it matters: the program aims to connect people to services, reduce low‑level calls for police response and improve downtown and neighborhood conditions through outreach and cleanup work.