Hollister
– Local law enforcement officials have secured the state funding
they were looking for to help make San Benito County’s Rural County
Crime Task Force effective in combating the crime that has plagued
county farms in recent years.
Hollister – Local law enforcement officials have secured the state funding they were looking for to help make San Benito County’s Rural County Crime Task Force effective in combating the crime that has plagued county farms in recent years.
The San Benito County Rural Crime Task Force will collaborate with adjacent counties through their county sheriffs departments, other rural crime prevention programs and the county District Attorney’s office to prevent, track and prosecute rural crime. State Senator Jeff Denham, R-Merced, presented the San Benito County Rural Crimes Task Force, represented by Sheriff Curtis Hill and Sgt. Jeff Goodwin, with a $200,000 check Wednesday at Felice Farms in Hollister – a location where fuel and machinery have been stolen.
“It’s perfect for what we need here in San Benito County,” Hill said.
Denham authored SB 44 in 2003 to use state funding to help establish the Central Coast Rural Crime Prevention Program, a program which covers five counties. The counties included are Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and San Benito.
The prevention program is based on the Central Valley Rural Crime Prevention Program, developed in Tulare County in response to theft and vandalism that costs the San Joaquin Valley $10 million annually. Part of the bill stipulates that counties receiving funding begin tracking rural crime statistics in order to assess how large the problem is on the central coast.
“A lot of agricultural crime goes without being reported,” Denham said.
Sgt. Jeff Goodwin will be the responsible deputy for collecting rural crime statistics, working with farmers on prevention methods and the reporting of crimes and for pursuing the crimes committed. Deputy District Attorney Candice Hooper will actively prosecute such crimes to involve the court system.
Rural crime covers farms, ranches and construction sites outside of city limits, Hill said. The owners and workers of rural operations are not the only group effected by such crime.
“It eventually gets to the consumer,” Hooper said.
Paul Hain, San Benito County Farm Bureau president, said the countywide cost of theft and vandalism to farmers easily exceeds the $200,000 being allocated for the rural crime prevention program. Patrolling San Benito’s rural roads is difficult, but if the money is allocated correctly, it will make a difference, Hain said.
“If it goes to patrol and added enforcement, sure,” Hain said.
Rural crime includes vandalism, theft of farming equipment and supplies and even the theft of livestock and illegal harvesting of produce. The cost of theft can range from power tools to large farming equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars.
Thieves looking to start their own marijuana growing operation may steal grow lights, as they did from Robert Frazier, farm and facilities manager for Seminis Vegetable Seeds in San Juan Bautista, in 2004. The grow lights were worth $60,000.
Pot growers are not the only source of rural crime from drug users or dealers. Methamphetamine users are also a source, Hain said.
“With drug problems comes theft,” he said.
Meth users steal materials and equipment, even if they do not know a buyer, in hopes of turning over cash, Hain said.
Professional criminals who identify and steal big ticket items, such as tractors, are a major source of concern for ranchers and farmers, Hain said.
Kay Felice, owner of Felice Farms, said she has had equipment and diesel fuel stolen from her farm. As the price of fuel goes up, so does the incentive to steal it. A California Farm Bureau Federation press release reported that fuel thefts had increased fourfold statewide from 2003 to 2004.
Creating a network with the outlying counties of the central coast is an important step in combating rural crime, Hill said. Criminals who steal equipment or materials in one county usually do not stay in the same county.
“We were seeing in other counties that livestock was being stolen in one county and being sold in another,” Denham said.
Hill said property stolen in rural crime sees a higher recovery rate than other thefts such as home burglaries. There is a 34 percent recovery rate for rural theft compared to a 10 percent recovery rate for all other thefts, Hill said. Monterey County, which received funding in 2005 and 2006, is already seeing cases go to trial from their task force efforts.
“There is a higher recovery than any other crime,” Denham said. “(The funding) is very justified.”
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335, or [email protected].
