Steve Freitas touts special focus on rural crime for Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office

Steve Freitas doesn’t hesitate. His top accomplishment in his five years as Sonoma County sheriff has been the department’s renewed focus on agricultural and rural crime.

Rural crimes, often involving the theft of ranching and vineyard equipment, aren’t typical headline makers. They don’t represent a large percentage of county crime or even some of the region’s most pressing issues, the sheriff acknowledges.

But 90 percent of the county’s 1,768 square miles is unincorporated and vast areas are rural, much of it covered in ranches, farms, vineyards and residential properties. Of the county’s 500,000 or so residents, about 40 percent - 200,000 - live outside the county’s nine cities.

“In the pie chart of crime, it’s probably pretty small,” Freitas said. “But to those people in those rural communities, I can’t overstate how big of a deal it is.”

Freitas heard complaints in 2010 during his first campaign for sheriff, saying “the people at the Farm Bureau and the agricultural communities were very clear with me that they outright felt abandoned.”

Farm Bureau officials said Freitas made good on his campaign promise to restart the department’s rural crime program, which had been active in the 1990s then dropped away for about a decade.

It was a fix he could do cheaply but still make an impact - residents and ranchers are happy to have the attention and with so much rural territory to cover, crime in the county’s near and far pockets required more resources.

Rural residents and business have lost more than $3 million to criminals since 2011, according to Sheriff’s Office statistics. Reports range from trespassers and the theft of grape bins to barn break-ins, stolen ATVs and tractors, copper wiring or brass sprinkler heads and missing livestock.

Losses have reached as high as $964,000 in fiscal year 2012 and as low as $575,000 in 2014.

One deputy in each of the six geographical zones handles rural crime investigation, mainly on patrol time. Crime prevention is a big component, along with community meetings and an ongoing partnership with the Farm Bureau.

“They have stepped up patrols in certain areas where crime seemed to be a little more prevalent,” said John Bidia, director of vineyard operations at Korbel Champagne Cellars in Guerneville. Bidia also is a member of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau board of directors.

Korbel has lost more than 1,000 sprinkler heads in the past five years, including 480 in one night last November. Each one costs $12.

“The sheriff’s deputy responds to the calls and does their best to try and catch somebody. Their time is limited. They can’t be everywhere all the time but they’re very responsive to the ag community,” Bidia said.

Every sheriff has sought to leave a legacy when they depart office. Sheriff Mark Ihde, for example, partnered with former Santa Rosa Police Chief Sal Rosano to improve collaboration among regional law enforcement agencies. Sheriff Bill Cogbill spearheaded a safe, family-friendly Cinco de Mayo celebration following years of troubled events with arrests, vandalism and a visible gang presence.

Freitas hopes his initiative to combat rural crime will be one lasting legacy.

“The community now knows we care about them and their issues. And I don’t think you can have something bigger than that,” he said.