A total of 50 people were booked at the San Benito County Jail between Thursday and Sunday, while the Hollister Police Department reported detailed arrest figures from the motorcycle rally weekend.
The motorcycle rally returned to downtown Hollister on Friday and Saturday after a five-year absence. The main reason the event was canceled after 2008 was the $360,000 public safety cost – a number cut to $116,000 this year. The event schedule also went from the customary three days to two days in 2013 for the first year back.
Hollister Police Chief David Westrick said there was some “slight stuff” on the crime end, but nothing unexpected considering the crowds.
“Our patrol officers and animal control officers did a great job with the extra calls for service,” he said in an email to the Free Lance. “Our downtown teams did a really good job of keeping the peace at the event.”
While Hollister police reported a relatively calm rally event, there was a report of an attempted murder in the jail’s records July 4. A 25-year-old Hollister man, Ronald R. Kay, was booked at about 11:20 p.m. July 4 on suspicion of attempted murder, according to jail records.
Police officials could not be reached immediately to provide details on that report.
For comparison to previous Hollister rallies: There were 75 arrests in 2004 and 65 arrests in 2005 before the non-rally year in 2006. In 2007, 84 people were booked at the jail, while numbers aren’t available for 2008.
The HPD did provide the following statistics from the rally weekend with comparisons of numbers from 2012:
2012:
DUI 1
Citations 13
Arrests 16
Accident Reports 2
Total Crime Reports 34
Total Calls for Service 319
2013:
DUI 12
Citations 32
Arrests 30
Accident Reports 6
Total Crime Reports 36
Total Calls for Service 576
2012 vs 2013 +/-
DUI +1100%
Citations +146%
Arrests +87%
Accident Reports +200%
Total Crime Reports +6%
Total Calls for Service +81%
