CrimeBeat Q&A: ‘jurisdictional Bermuda Triangles’ for crime reporting

My car was burglarized at the Laguna de Santa Rosa trailhead on Occidental Road, and I’m having trouble figuring out which agency to file a police report to. What should I do?

Kevin Maurer, Santa Rosa

No matter where you are in Sonoma County, law enforcement will respond in the case of an emergency. Yet, in nonemergency situations it can sometimes be frustrating to figure out which law enforcement agency to contact to report a crime.

Santa Rosa resident Kevin Maurer learned this when he was caught in what he described as a “jurisdictional Bermuda Triangle” after his car was broken into at the Laguna de Santa Rosa trailhead on Occidental Road.

The parking lot at the trailhead falls in the jurisdiction of the Santa Rosa Police Department as the city owns large chunks of land close to the Sebastopol city limits. But the stretch of Occidental Road where the trailhead is located falls within the jurisdiction of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. To add to the confusion, the signs at the beginning of the trail operated by Sonoma County Regional Parks but running through mostly Santa Rosa property, direct people to call the Sheriff’s Office if they have been a victim of a crime.

In early June, Maurer decided to go for a hike with his wife after getting groceries at a local farmers market. When they returned to their car, a window was smashed, the groceries gone and small items including a pocketknife taken. He called the sheriff’s nonemergency number posted at the trail, but kept getting a busy signal. When Maurer finally reached a dispatcher, he was told it wasn’t the sheriff’s jurisdiction and was transferred to the Santa Rosa police who then told him to fill out a report online.

When Maurer went to file a report online and entered the address of the trailhead, an error message popped up that read: “The address you have entered does not appear to be in our jurisdiction.”

“That was so frustrating,” Maurer said. “My main concern was my knife was stolen. I wanted to alert police in case it was used in a crime.”

While compared to other areas of Santa Rosa where there have been a spike in vehicle burglaries, there have been only two, including Maurer’s, at the Laguna de Santa Rosa trailhead on Occidental Road, said Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Marcus Sprague.

“To the common person, the jurisdictional boundaries in that area don’t make a lot of sense. I get it,” Sprague said. “There are pockets like that all over the city, and it’s not a perfect system.”

The day after Maurer filed an incident report online, he received a call from the SRPD records department about the burglary and to clarify the location. A frustrated Maurer was told that Santa Rosa police would reconcile any issues and signage with the Sheriff’s Office. A month later, the signs still direct people to call the Sheriff’s Office to report a crime. As for Maurer, he’s had no luck recovering his groceries or his pocketknife.