Little progress has been made on creating a multi-jurisdictional
anti-gang unit in the last three months, after a rash of gang
violence prompted area law enforcement officials to consider
establishing one.
Hollister – Little progress has been made on creating a multi-jurisdictional anti-gang unit in the last three months, after a rash of gang violence prompted area law enforcement officials to consider establishing one.
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors suggested the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office, Hollister Police Department and San Benito County Probation Department work together with the District Attorney’s Office to draft a gang prevention, intervention and suppression program last December after a spate of gang-related shootings.
Although officials have talked about the endeavor, few of them seem to have a clear picture of what the anti-gang unit would look like or how soon it could be put into place.
San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill said he’s talked about an anti-gang unit with Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller and plan to continue working together.
“The chief and I are still talking. For us, this is nothing new, we’ve been working together for years,” Hill said Monday. “We just need to keep meeting and keep talking and in the meantime keep making arrests. We’ve been making a lot of good arrests, gang-bangers know we’re out there and they don’t like it.”
Hill said he wanted the anti-gang unit to be more than just smoke and mirrors.
“I don’t want to go off half-cocked,” he said. “I’m not going to waste taxpayers money. If we’re going to do this, it needs to be done right.”
However, Miller said he doesn’t believe it’s necessary to create a standalone unit, but would rather integrate into an existing unit.
He has said the police department currently works with other county, state and regional law enforcement agencies and has made squelching gangs a priority. But, he added, the issue of understaffing in the department is a constant obstacle to anti-gang efforts.
“We’re still looking at options but we have no where near the problems that Monterey County has,” he said. “You have to put everything in perspective.”
San Benito County Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, who is on the joint agency committee, was frustrated by the slow pace. De La Cruz said jurisdiction and logistical issues, such as which agency would be in charge, have caused the hold-up.
“I think we need to start meeting on a weekly basis,” he said. “We need to start moving on this, we have to start doing something.”
De La Cruz didn’t have a timeline for implementing the new task force, but said he was confident that Hill would keep the project on course.
San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield suggested in December the groups work together to hire a host of new officers to work solely on combatting gangs.
According to Sarsfield, a “rough” sketch of the organization includes:
Six new Hollister police officers
Two new sheriff’s deputies
One new probation officer
A new part-time District Attorney’s Office prosecutor
A new part-time city or county attorney
Sarsfield, who also said one possibility to secure state or federal funds for the additional personnel would be for the supervisors to declare a “state of emergency” in the county, said progress on the joint unit has virtually stalled.
“To my knowledge the county isn’t doing anything,” he said. “My office doesn’t have a leadership role in the program, but we’re so short-staffed right now that we couldn’t do anything anyway.”
Hollister Mayor Robert Scattini said the city didn’t have the money to hire new officers, but that the agencies were continuing to meet.
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or br******@fr***********.com.
