Darren Thompson, the San Benito County Sheriff, released the 2012 sheriff’s office annual report last week, citing an “exciting and disappointing” year for the department as the department fielded 8 percent more service calls with 40 percent of the patrol staff.
In a message at the beginning of the report Thompson said the year was exciting as the department moved from an outdated building on Fourth Street where they had been housed for 60 years to a new facility on Technology Parkway that allows for future growth of the department. They also updated the radio system used by all law enforcement, fire and public works employees in San Benito.
Thompson in his letter said 2012 was disappointing because the department lost eight deputy sheriffs, a correctional deputy, two secretaries and two records clerk positions.
With local cuts and the state implementation of Assembly Bill 109, Thompson said in the report both jail employees and patrol staff members were impacted. The bill brought more inmates back to the county jail from the state prison system. The county jail has a capacity of 142 inmates, including up to eight female inmates. According to the annual report, inmates have been released early from the county jail, with field law enforcement charged with finding alternatives to booking such as cite and release programs. To keep the number of inmates down, the county has continues to use the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program.
The county jail handled 2,273 arrests in 2012, down 11 percent from 2011.
The annual report outlined the number of calls for service the department received as well as which services are mandatory for the department.
The county sheriff’s office is required by state law to provide:
• court security and bailiff service
• coroner duties
• corrections – jail services and inmate transportation
• civil process and court document service
• California Department of Justice computer system access for local agencies
• Office of Emergency service operations, and search and rescue services
In San Benito County, the office provides patrol services outside the Hollister city limits in rural parts of the county and in San Juan Bautista. The report stated deputies saw an 8 percent increase in calls for service compared to 2011. Sheriff’s deputies are responsible for the enforcement of criminal, vehicle and county code regulations, as well as investigating misdemeanor and felony crimes.
The department wrote 40 percent less citations and made 5 percent fewer arrests, a decline cited as related to the reduction in patrol staffing.
In terms of response times, the department reported they had an average time of 10 minutes, 8 seconds to get to calls that were marked as priority 1, included those that involved an immediate threat to safety or an in progress felony.
They took 11 minutes, 55 seconds to respond to in progress threats to property or non-violent crime and took 26 minutes and 31 seconds on average to respond to all other calls.
One service request that continues to go up for the sheriff’s department is civil process service. The department has seen a continued increase since the county’s marshal office closed in 2010. In 2012, the department saw a 26 percent increase in civil process service requests.
The department completed 1,990 civil process services, which took 3,750 attempts. Most documents require an average of three attempts to successfully serve someone.
The following civil process documents were served:
Court orders – 681
Evictions – 150
Summons – 703
Subpoenas – 398
Temporary restraining orders – 58
Coroner cases also increased by 30 percent from 2011. The department handled 70 cases in which patrol deputies handled preliminary investigations before notifying on-call deputies. As in past years, autopsies were performed by the Monterey County coroner’s office under contract.
The sheriff’s department received some grant funding in 2012, including a grant for agricultural investigations. One deputy in the county is assigned to investigate agricultural crimes and educate the community on prevention. The county also received a Gang Resistance Education and Training grant that covered the cost of curriculum in the middle school and elementary classrooms. The Hollister School District grant covers the cost of one deputy who can spend four to six hours a week in the schools. They worked with 600 students in 2012.
