A law proposed by state Sen. Jeff Denham to create a rural crime
task force for the San Benito County area passed the state Senate
and won approval from local law enforcement.
A law proposed by state Sen. Jeff Denham to create a rural crime task force for the San Benito County area passed the state Senate and won approval from local law enforcement.
The measure, Senate Bill 44, authored by Denham, R-Salinas, would authorize the creation of a rural task force designed to focus on agriculture-related crimes. The task force would be modeled after a program that has shown success in the Central Valley, Denham said.
“We want Central Coast counties to duplicate the success of the Central Valley task force,” he said. “The agricultural counties of the Central Coast should be targeting rural crime just like the counties of the Central Valley.”
The bill won unanimous approval by the state Senate late Friday and moves to the state Assembly this week for further deliberation.
The measure, if turned into law, would span the counties of San Benito, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, said Denham spokesman Nick Rappley.
“I think it’s great and I appreciate the senator doing this,” San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield said. “I think it will be good for San Benito County.”
Sarsfield said the program would increase communication between law enforcement agencies and would help track and eventually help apprehend repeat offenders.
“What it does is, it gets sheriffs and D.A.s together from surrounding counties to sit down and talk about crime in their prospective areas,” Sarsfield said.
Sheriff Curtis Hill said the program was a good idea and even traveled to Sacramento to testify before a Senate committee about the effectiveness the proposed task force would have in the San Benito-Monterey county area.
“It would put San Benito and Monterey counties working together on rural crime,” Hill said. “We already put a focus on rural crime, but this would put specialized law enforcement teams with extra emphasis on ag-related crimes.”
As a task force, agents would track criminals across county and city boundaries without concerns about jurisdictional constraints.
“One of the things they found is somebody committing ag crimes in Fresno County is doing it in Monterey County and they are doing it here,” Hill said. “This is a good program and would serve us well.”
Hill said the program also places extra attention on construction theft and other crimes that take place at construction sites.
The program, if approved by the Assembly and signed into law by the governor, would not be immediately funded by the state.
“What we are looking to do is get this started this year, and as the economy comes around we could receive funding of up to $300,000 a year,” Hill said.
