HOLLISTER
– There were fewer arrests made during this year’s Hollister
Independence Rally, but more citations issued and four times the
calls for service reported during the three-day event compared to
last year, according to police.
HOLLISTER – There were fewer arrests made during this year’s Hollister Independence Rally, but more citations issued and four times the calls for service reported during the three-day event compared to last year, according to police.
Between midnight on Friday and about 3 a.m. Monday morning, the county’s computer-aided dispatch system logged 937 calls for service – considerably more than last years which totaled more than 200 for the entire weekend, according to Hollister Police Capt. Bob Brooks.
The high number of calls simply means more people called for assistance, Brooks said. Calls could have been for anything such as an officer responding to a complaint of loud music, issuing a citation, arresting someone or responding to a business alarm.
”It shows prevention is working… and it means officers were jumping around a lot,” he said. ”It’s better to cite people and let people know enforcement of the laws is being adhered to so they don’t violate them.”
As of Tuesday, Hollister police recorded a total of 56 arrests during the rally, with 20 of them in the downtown area.
A total of 436 enforcement actions were taken city-wide over the three-day period, which includes citations issued for parking or traffic violations, pedestrian stops and arrests, Brooks said.
The majority of the arrests were for drunk driving, drug-related offenses, drunk in public and vandalism. Six motorcycles, five of them Harley Davidsons and one Suzuki, were stolen over the weekend, Brooks said.
Fewer violent crimes were committed and fewer arrests were made because police officers were outfitted in full police uniform, rather than the less formal T-shirts they’ve worn in years past.
”People were able to distinguish who police officers were rather quickly… Somebody thinking about committing a crime, if they know a police officer is standing 10 feet away, they might not do it,” Brooks said. ”Preventing crime just by our presence is our goal.”
Police will have a better idea of what worked well and what may need to be changed next year after a meeting next week when officers and department heads can brainstorm about the event, Brooks said.
The California Highway Patrol experienced a fairly calm weekend considering the influx of people, according to CHP Officer Terry Mayes.
Overall, there were a couple more crashes this year but the numbers for arrests and accidents are fairly comparable to last year, she said.
”It was a pretty successful weekend,” Mayes said.
