The San Benito County Sheriff’s Department is hoping to secure
more state funding and work closely with counterparts in other
counties to crack down on rural crime.
Hollister – The San Benito County Sheriff’s Department is hoping to secure more state funding and work closely with counterparts in other counties to crack down on rural crime.
Sheriff Curtis Hill is talking with officials from the Central Coast Rural Crime Prevention Program to figure out how counties can work together to prevent rural crime and pool resources to reduce crimes against farmers and ranchers. The CCRCP is a collaborative effort by Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties, and is modeled on other rural crime prevention networks.
San Benito County has also been asked to join the Tulare County-based Agricultural Crime Technology Information and Operations Network, commonly known as the ACTION Project, Hill said. The ACTION Project is a web of law enforcement agencies that focus on preventing, solving and tracking crimes against farmers and ranchers in California’s agricultural regions.
By joining such programs, the county would be eligible for additional state law enforcement resources, such as databases that record the serial numbers of stolen tractors and help police recover stolen equipment, said ACTION Program Director Bill Yoshimo.
Rural crime is a big problem in San Benito County and local farmers say theft is a constant drain on their profits. Although statistics aren’t available for San Benito County, farmers and ranchers in the San Joaquin Valley alone loose more than $10 million annually from agricultural thefts of crops and equipment, Yoshimo said.
Trespassing and theft are the two most common rural crimes, but vandalism and destruction of property also take a toll on local farmers.
This year, Mitt French, manager of San Benito Cattle Company, was hit hard when unknown gunmen killed a $3,500 bull on his ranch for no apparent reason. Last year, another one of his bulls was shot in a similar manner.
“It makes no sense at all,” he said. “Anybody that has property along these rural roads is at risk for stupid violence like this.”
Hill is planning to ask the state for about $200,000 to fight rural crime this year – money he hopes can be used to hire another full-time deputy to patrol rural roads. Hill said joining the ACTION program or a similar program such as the CCRCP could also help by providing local deputies with additional crime-tracking resources, such as statewide databases.
“The days of leaving your tractor out in the field are over,” he said. “We have to share advice and network.”
Hill said he plans to meet with other law enforcement officials from across the state next week to discuss strategies for deterring and combating crimes.
Rural crime can take a number of forms. Thieves steal everything from hammers and sprinkler pipes to fertilizer and fuel, said Robert Frazier, farm and facilities manager for Seminis Vegetable Seeds in San Juan Bautista. Frazier said rural crime is a problem every year, but two years ago he installed his own security measures after thieves stole dozens of high-wattage grow lights from one of the company’s greenhouses.
“They took at least 60 of them,” Frazier said. “They cut the wires and all – that’s a $60,000 loss.”
Since that time, Frazier has installed alarms and put up a fence around the entire growing area. The next step is installing motion-sensitive flood lights, he said. Frazier suspects thieves stole the lights to use in a marijuana growing operation, but he said people will steal just about anything that’s not locked down. One year Frazier said thieves even stole batteries out of the company’s tractors.
Ken Perry, co-owner of B&P orchards, said most of the crimes he reports are petty thefts. Perry said thieves have stolen everything from chain saws to drill presses from his equipment shed.
“It’s just a continual drain,” he said. “It’s probably a bunch of dopers stealing everything they can to put stuff up their noses.”
Farmers and ranchers across the county believe more patrols and increased police presence can help curb rural crime, said Farm Bureau President Paul Hain.
“Having someone watching is the biggest deterrent to crime,” he said.
Hain said getting involved with networks such as the ACTION program could help reduce rural crime.
“It certainly can’t hurt,” he said. “Even if all it does is raise awareness, that will help.”
Brett Rowland covers public safety and agriculture for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
