Wood, a 23-year Hollister Police vet, stresses cooperation, gang
control
Ray Wood has spent the majority of his life serving San Benito
County. His 23 years as a Hollister Police Department officer have
allowed him to make a mark on the county around him.
Now, at age 52, the police sergeant is looking for something
different
– serving the county as an elected official in the sheriff
role.
Wood said he thinks his invaluable experience of spending his
entire life in the community, except time spent at California State
University, Fresno, allows him to understand the law enforcement
needs of the community, he said.
And with the recent troubles the office has faced, Wood said he
thinks now is the time when he could make his greatest impact.
Wood, a 23-year Hollister Police vet, stresses cooperation, gang control
Ray Wood has spent the majority of his life serving San Benito County. His 23 years as a Hollister Police Department officer have allowed him to make a mark on the county around him.
Now, at age 52, the police sergeant is looking for something different – serving the county as an elected official in the sheriff role.
Wood said he thinks his invaluable experience of spending his entire life in the community, except time spent at California State University, Fresno, allows him to understand the law enforcement needs of the community, he said.
And with the recent troubles the office has faced, Wood said he thinks now is the time when he could make his greatest impact.
“For years I’ve had an interest in it, but it wasn’t until recently when issues started coming to light and it had a negative impact to the sheriff’s office,” Wood said.
Wood’s connection to the police department also is a bonus, he said, because if elected it would allow better communication between the two departments.
“I’m the best candidate because of my relationship that I do have with the police department and the sheriff’s office,” Wood said.
The strong communication would make it easier if Hollister city government and the San Benito County Board of Supervisors agree to merge both departments.
Wood’s strong ties to the local police department and his leadership role as sheriff would strengthen the ability to get it done, he said.
Before it could happen, Wood would expect the county and city to do a study to make sure it would be reasonable for the two departments to absorb each other, he said. It needs to be made sure that the officers would have the capability of serving the entire region.
“I’m not opposed to it, but we need to do it carefully,” Wood said. “Send out a survey to see the problems in the area. We need to know what the problems are before we do anything.”
Surveying the problem areas would allow the sheriff’s office to determine the best way to handle situations once the departments consolidate and their coverage area grows.
First off, Wood said he believes the sheriff’s office should focus on preventing the growth of drug use and gang violence, something that he thinks is intertwined, he said.
“There is no secret to it, the gangsters are our dope dealers and our dope dealers are our gangsters,” Wood said. “It’s time to redirect some of our forces into the prevention of gangs.”
But the prevention of the gangs gets harder and harder due to the lack of communication between policing agencies in the area, he said. The other sheriff’s departments in the region don’t communicate with each other. The police departments don’t communicate with each other. And the California Highway Patrol keeps to itself, he said.
“The first thing we need to do is create a gang task force between all these agencies,” Wood said.
To start doing that, Wood thinks officers need to start using technology better, he said. Information on gangs and other activity should be sent to one location that all agencies in the immediate area can go to.
“On a small scale we know who the gangsters are but we don’t know a large amount of the adult gangsters who are coming in form Salinas, Watsonville and the Bay Area,” Wood said. “We don’t know them because we don’t have a process in place that tells us.”
But that’s only the first step.
“Then you have to have a team of people that absolutely believe in the process. I absolutely believe contacting gangsters, doing search warrants and being aggressive is necessary,” Wood said. “Prevention is part of the process, but at one point people need to go to jail. There needs to be consequence to your actions.”
That also includes keeping an eye on others within the department after last year’s rape conviction of former sheriff’s deputy Michael Rodrigues.
“Law enforcement is held to a higher standard and we have the responsibility that when something negatively impacts an officer, the community or the department – the first time – you can’t ignore it,” Wood said.
Acting now will save the department from problems in the future, he said.
“It’s our obligation to set that correct right now … but what you cannot do is let it rage on, year after year,” Wood said.
