San Jose – The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted
unanimously 5-0 Wednesday afternoon to save the only two rural
crime sheriff deputy positions that serve South County and the West
Valley areas.
San Jose – The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously 5-0 Wednesday afternoon to save the only two rural crime sheriff deputy positions that serve South County and the West Valley areas.
“I feel very strongly that the most direct and important service of the county is basic public safety. When a rural resident calls 911 they rely on a rural sheriff,” Wasserman said Wednesday from the county government center in San Jose.
The county is looking at a budget deficit of more then $200 million that is expected to be finalized by Friday; the elimination of the rural crime unit would have saved $300,000 annually.
District 1 Supervisor Mike Wasserman urged his fellow supervisors to take the rural crime unit off the chopping block last week, pointing to its necessity to keep farmers and ranchers safe and aid those who live in rural areas of unincorprated Santa Clara County.
BACKGROUND
The county sheriff’s office created the rural crime unit in 1992 when theft and trespassing was becoming an epidemic and damaging business. The first year of the part-time enforcement resulted in the recovery of 134,000 pounds of stolen garlic.
Now, a rural crime deputy is dedicated to South County and another to the Mount Hamilton range. Local farmers say crime has decreased since the incorporation of a rural crime unit – Deputy George Hessling – but it can’t go away, the deputy is necessary. Wasserman appealed to the Public Safety and Justice Committee June 1, asking that they move the item to the board inventory, or off the list of budget cuts.
“When an unincorporated resident calls 911 they are relying on a deputy sheriff to respond to that call. Currently in some areas of our county the response times can be up to 45 minutes, perhaps longer. That’s why I am asking to restore the deputies assigned to rural crimes,” he told the committee. The elimination of the rural crime unit would save the county about $300,000 annually and is part of $6 million in cuts proposed to the sheriff’s department.
“The deputies … enable farmers and ranchers in several ways to stay in business and confident and supported and I believe they deserve support of the agriculture,” Wasserman said.
In their April newsletter, the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, a nonprofit organization, appealed to readers for support of the rural crime unit.
“It’s really a bang for your buck kind of thing,” said Jennifer Williams, the Farm Bureau’s executive director. “And it’s not just the farmers … but the rural residents benefit from his constant patrol. When I’m out talking to people, they say ‘yeah we saw him earlier this week.’ Just his presence keeps crime down and that’s something we can’t afford to lose.”
Wasserman is unsettled by the proposal – calling public safety the county’s No. 1 concern.
“Can you imagine you were at one end (of the county) and got a call for service on the other end? The response is not very good as it is, so to eliminate that entirely that’s why I’m going to be asking my colleagues to support that additional funding to keep the rural crime unit as is. We need to pay for the minimal coverage we have now,” Wasserman said.
