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By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
11-14-2009 Crime is down in Bishop, and more crimes are being prevented while the city is becoming safer with the help of technological advances.
The Bishop Police Department is working hard, and succeeding, in being proactive and foiling many crimes before they happen, even bar fights, according to Chief Kathleen Sheehan.
The department is getting ever closer to what may seem like an impossible goal, but one that every law enforcement agency strives for: a crime-free community.
“Crime is plummeting,” Sheehan told the Bishop City Council at its latest meeting.
From her office on Tuesday, she said with a smile, “We must be good or lucky, or both.”
Part of that is attributed to a combination of street smarts, community input, good supervision and technical improvements.
Sheehan said she credits many of the improvements to the computer and communication side of the BPD to Reserve Officer, Dispatcher and Chief Technical Officer Frank Bumgarner. These advances are equalling a more efficient and effective prevention and overall safety of the community.
Bumgarner’s job includes trouble shooting the IT system and computers as well as always keeping an eye on the horizon for upgrades to the system.
He found capabilities within the existing system to improve facilitating extra patrols. Sheehan gave an example of when a homeowner asks for extra patrol when on vacation.
Instead of asking an officer to make that patrol when time permits, Bumgarner was able to input several different factors into the computer program, so that patrols are timed. These factors may include a recent rash of thefts in the vicinity being reported at a particular time. It is a way to focus efforts at a particular time and place to apprehend, prevent or interrupt a crime. It also creates a timeline, so if a crime does occur, the BPD has records of when the home was patrolled.
“Just our presence in the area may make a thief think different,” Sheehan said.
These electronic parts are blended with experienced supervisors, and the personal stories or history of the officers themselves are combined to make for a safer neighborhood.
Another thing that could keep Bishop’s mean streets safer, or at least crime-free, is more residents locking their cars.
Sheehan explained that in October, half of the crimes committed were thefts, usually vehicle break-ins. Many of these were residential, but there have been a couple at hotels where the negative experience of one tourist could be told over and over again.
“It’s in the best interest of the community to help us prevent crime as much as possible,” she said.
Sheehan has also been working with local businesses, especially bars and drinking establishments, to try and curtail the other half of crimes in Bishop – bar fights.
“People might ask, ‘Well how do you prevent a bar fight?’” Sheehan said.
But according to the chief, it can be as easy as a bartender not serving someone when they come in drunk, or a restaurant owner calling the BPD and ask officers to come by and check on an intoxicated patron, especially if the patron has a history of tipping back too many and becoming disruptive, if not a danger to themselves or others.
“The officer could come in and just put their hand on the guy or girl’s shoulder and say, ‘Hey, don’t you think you’ve had enough?’” This is usually enough to scare or at least intimidate a rowdy party to go home, “and bar fight averted,” Sheehan said.
And with the newly crafted enforcement of California Penal Code Section 602.1 (a), someone in a bar fight, or caught shoplifting, could be banned from the establishment for one year.
Sheehan explained that if a suspect commits a crime in an establishment, through a prior agreement with the BPD, the suspect will be charged with whatever the offense was, plus be banned from the premises and may not enter “for any reason.”
Sheehan said it’s an enforcement device that has a little more legal teeth than a business’ right to refuse service to anyone, but less severe and complicated that a restraining order.
She said hopefully people will think twice about stealing a bottle of liquor from a grocery store knowing that they will not be allowed back in the store for any reason, even an emergency.
A question of a violation of constitutional rights has not been a problem for the City of Barstow, which Bishop’s plan is being modeled after, Sheehan said.
She said that any business wishing to participate in the 602.1(a) should contact her personally at (760) 873-5866.
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