The union representing Fresno County deputies has sent a mailer to area residents in an attempt to divert their attention from the inefficient way the law enforcement services are delivered to county islands within the metropolitan area.
The mailer's message essentially is that if the Fresno Police Department takes over patrols in county islands, sex offenders will have a free pass to attack residents. The tactics of the Fresno County Deputy Sheriff's Association are shameful.
The mailer says the city has lost track of 14% of the 1,565 registered sex offenders registered in the city and the sheriff's office has lost track of only 6% of the registered sex offenders in the county's unincorporated areas. "Ask yourself," the mailer says, "Who do you want keeping track of the registered sex offenders in your neighborhood and protecting you and your family ... the city or the Sheriff's Department?"
The union opposes the city of Fresno's proposal to have police patrol county islands to free up deputies to provide law enforcement services in the rural area of the county.
The Fresno County Deputy Sheriff's Association can't defend the current system so the union is making outrageous suggestions about how unsafe the county islands would be if city police officers patrolled them. In addition, the mailer says the city is trying to "annex" the county islands to the city. Annexation is not part of the city's proposal.
In a separate letter, the union apologizes to the Fresno police union if any of their officers were offended by the mailer. The fact that the deputies union had to send the letter to the Fresno Police Officers Association answers that question.
The letter also accuses The Bee of being a "mouthpiece" for Mayor Ashley Swearengin on this issue. That is as silly as the union's other claims. The Bee's editorial board has supported law enforcement consolidation for several years before Swearengin was elected.
The question here is a simple one. What is the most efficient way of providing law enforcement services to county islands surrounded by the city? If city police seamlessly handled the county islands, you would not have deputies and police officers going back and forth across each other's territory to patrol their jurisdictions. That's inefficient and wastes resources that could be used at other crime hotspots.
Fresno County's budget troubles have forced Sheriff Margaret Mims to release prisoners from the jail early and make other cuts. You'd think the deputies union would embrace a plan that could save money, and some of their jobs. But this is an old-fashioned turf battle. That's not good for residents of Fresno's county islands.
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