Action stalls on creating a unit between Hollister and SBC to
combat gangs
Hollister – Little progress has been made on creating a multi-jurisdictional anti-gang unit, after a rash of gang violence prompted area law enforcement officials to consider establishing one about three months ago.
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 program last December after a spate of shootings.
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.”
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.
De La Cruz didn’t have a timeline for implementing the new task force, but said he was confident Hill would keep the project on course.
San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield suggested in December the groups work together to hire six new Hollister police officers, two sheriff’s deputies, a probation officer, a part-time prosecutor and part-time city or county attorney for the anti-gang unit. 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.”
