Police Work Regionally to Crack Down on Parole Violators

In response to a 36 percent increase in burglaries – auto,
residential and commercial – Morgan Hill Police officers arrested
four parolees on various charges thanks to help from San Benito
County and other area law enforcement agencies.
In response to a 36 percent increase in burglaries – auto, residential and commercial – Morgan Hill Police officers arrested four parolees on various charges thanks to help from San Benito County and other area law enforcement agencies.

“I believe that parolees and probationers are involved in a disproportionate amount of crime in our city,” said Morgan Hill Police Chief Bruce Cumming on Monday. “I think we need to keep a closer eye on them, and this was our effort to do that. It’s a real bonus for the community because the police work in separate jurisdictions. The parolees and probationers don’t care about jurisdictional lines, so to the extent we can work more together with these other agencies, it’s a real bonus.”

MHPD officers worked with agents from the Gilroy Anti-Crime Team, the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department, Santa Clara County Probation, California State Parole and the Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team task force to conduct 10 parolee compliance checks. Officers from the different agencies, coordinated by MHPD detective Mindy Zen, visited 10 parolees’ homes to determine if they were using illegal drugs or violating their parole in other ways.

As a result, four Morgan Hill residents were taken to Santa Clara County Jail for a variety of violations.

Peter Palazzolo, 25, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance. 

Eric Mensing, 18, was arrested for possession of marijuana for sale and for a probation violation. Officers also confiscated numerous weapons from his residence.

Charles Borges, 44, was arrested for a parole violation.

Karen Vlahov, age unavailable, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance, being under the influence of a controlled substance and child endangerment. 

“They will go wherever the opportunity to commit a crime exists,” Cumming said. “So the added bonus of these kind of sweeps is in that when we work with other agencies, the flow of information is increased. We share what we have, they share with us. We’re not isolated here in Morgan Hill. You can be in Gilroy in 10 minutes. And, like working folks, many of these criminals also commute. It benefits all of our agencies to work together.”

Officers from the agencies joined to visit the residences of parolees who might have committed crimes in areas other than Morgan Hill.

UNET Task force Cmdr. Mark Colla said the collaborative effort was important to the task force “because these individuals work, associate and commit crimes in Gilroy, Hollister, San Martin and San Benito County areas.”

Cumming said the department plans to conduct other sweeps and continue to focus on burglary suppression.

“There will be more in the future,” he said. “We’re going to continue this sort of effort, to do our best to keep an eye on the probationers and parolees. They don’t always follow the rules, and we’re going to be there when they are in violation. It’s hard for the Probation Department and Parole to do it on their own. We can work with them, and we can be there to catch these guys when they slip up.”