Keep Bailing

California state assemblyman Brian Jones (R-Santee) believes that the state’s prison overpopulation problem can be solved by relocating inmates to facilities south of the border.  If the proposal is successful, that means prisoners from throughout the state, including those being held at the Las Colinas Jail for Women, could potentially be relocated.

The crux of the argument, reports Fox 5 San Diego, lies in the 27,000+ illegal immigrant inmates being detained in California prisons.  Jones believes a more cost-effective solution would be to construct facilities in Mexico and house them there, he said.

According to a recent report by the Public Policy Institute of California, the state’s prisons are operating at 175% of Read more »

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore has plans to hire eight additional sheriff’s deputies and a sergeant that will be used to target certain unincorporated areas of the County of San Diego.

This new strategy will use data analysis in addition to other intelligence in order to focus on incidents and offenders that harm the community most. The goal of this new crime-fighting plan is to know where probationers and parolees reside in each patrol beat. With this information, officers will be able to solve crimes sooner.

“This way we can target a particular crime in a particular area of San Diego County and really have an impact and drive down some crime rates in high-crime areas,” said Gore.

The department’s move toward a more intelligence-led policing strategy is an important move. Commanders have already begun to prepare assignments for new deputies in stations across the county’s unincorporated areas to help keep up with the ever-growing population.

The department has already seen some success with the border-crime suppression team which shows how effective and flexible a targeted approach can be.

Referring to San Diego Sheriff’s Deparment Sub-Stations, Read more »

San Diego’s Southeastern Division Suffers

So far this year, San Diego has seen a drop in crime, but it has also seen a marked increase in gang violence as well. In all of 2010, there were a total of four gang-related homicides. As of right now, there have been six in the city.

Police Chief William Lansdowne stated, “We’re seeing a spike in crime right now, and it has to do with gang violence in the city of San Diego, and it has to do with gang violence in the southeast area of San Diego.”

In April, nine people were shot or killed in southeastern San Diego. It appears that recent shootings are in retaliation for previous ones. Community members and leaders held a rally Thursday, “Peace in Southeast,” hoping to draw attention to the growing problem centered around the San Diego Police Department Southeast Division.

Former gang member, Stacy Butler, took part in the rally in support of peace. “Why do we live in misery?” Butler asked. He was sentenced to 30 years to life for the 1988 shooting death of SDPD officer Jerry Hartless, but released in 2000. “I faced the death penalty. I try to tell kids to go another route.”

The first three months of this year, Read more »

An accused police impersonator has been taken into custody by the Chula Vista Police Department. He had reportedly been conducting traffic stops and has been found to have a long criminal history, according to police. According to NBC San Diego, Kevin Kenniston, a Chula Vista resident, was arrested Monday morning at 8:10 a.m. while appearing at an unrelated hearing in the South County Superior Court.

It is alleged that Kenniston drove a Ford Crown Victoria, painted black and white and equipped with a siren and emergency lights, and conducted a traffic stop on February 23 around 2 p.m. near East Orange Avenue and Max Road.

“Kenniston confronted the female about ‘running a red light and almost running into him.’ Kenniston drove off when a CVPD uniformed patrol unit pulled into the area,” said Capt. Gary Ficacci.

The driver believed that Kenniston was a real police officer.

Another incident occurred on March 9 at 9 am, when Kenniston allegedly took his girlfriend’s daughter to school at an elementary school in Chula Vista while driving the same Crown Victoria.

“He used his emergency lights and PA system to confront another female who was parked near an alleged red/yellow zone,” said Capt. Ficacci. “When the female ignored him, he blocked her car and demanded her license, registration, and insurance.”

The woman believed Kenniston was an off-duty police officer and handed the documents over to him.

It is alleged that Kenniston Read more »

According to KPBS, San Diego reports again that crime rates are currently falling. The San Diego Association of Government (SANDAG) is reporting that both violent crime and property crime are at a ten-year low for the first six months of this year.  Compared to this time last year, San Diego’s violent crime was down eight percent while property crime was down two percent.

While we commented on crime rates, bail bonds and the economy in April 2009, for many skeptics and believers alike, one question remains…Why?

One interesting answer is given by San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne who indicated that the crime rates had gone down due to good police enforcement.

Lansdowne further stated, “The concept of Read more »

What have we come to in a world where a mother of five children will resort to guerrilla tactics and air-headed iron will just to make a living? Maybe the money is good? At any rate, (bank rate that is), Roxanne Pennock, age 37 pleaded not guilty to a Riverside County Court Judge yesterday on charges she robbed two Temecula banks on October 22nd and again on November 6th.

She’s also suspected of holding up two more banks in Poway which she’s not officially been charged for, yet. Pennock was arrested in Temecula on November 6th, just minutes after a woman robbied Temecula Chase Bank. She was later stopped in a van that witnesses identified at the crime scene.

Guilty or not, Pennock is out of jail on a $25,000 bail. Her lawyer, declined to comment after she was ordered back to court on December 17th.  Officials have some further investigations to do. The FBI is now on the case along with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

To top it all off, Read more »

Ah, vacations! You plan, you look forward to it, but you know something is apt to not go as planned…

Let me back up: When people hear that I’m a bail bondsman, they always seem to think, “you must have a lot of good stories.” Truth be told, we don’t. Mostly, we bail out regular people. Day in and day out, bail is like most other jobs – except, of course, that you do it 24 x 7 x 365.

Days like yesterday, where we get an interesting case, are pretty rare. Got a call this for a bail bond out of Los Colinas Jail, San Diego’s womens jail on an out of state warrant on a woman – pretty regular so far.

Now, for the rest of the story… Husband put together a birthday cruise Read more »

A new jail has been approved for Santee, California near the 52 and 67 freeways. The new 45 acre jail facility is budgeted at $308.5 million. It will replace the current Las Colinas women’s jail which was built in the 1960′s. The San Diego county Board of Supervisors approved these plans last month. But since then, the City of Santee has brought a lawsuit to San Diego Court Wednesday, citing that the county violated the state environmental law. Santee city argues that the county did not consider the impact on traffic and public safety for the city.

Santee also filed a lawsuit last year against the county involving a $100 million state grant to expand the Las Colinas jail, Read more »

Marquise Loftis, 18 years old of San Diego, was arrested this morning leaving his San Diego home under suspicion the shooting a trolley guard and was booked at the San Diego County Central Jail.   Police are crediting the public for helping out with the arrest.

The security guard for the San Diego Trolley system was shot on July 18, at the La Mesa trolley station. Earlier in the week, on the 15th of July, the same guard was attacked where his gun and ammunition was stolen. This attack happened at the Encanto trolley station.  Loftis is allegedly responsible for both incidents.

Makes For Longer Jail Time…

To halt the potential spread of Swine Flu at an Otay Mesa Jail in San Diego, immigrant inmates are being quarantined. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials report that while these inmates wait for their day in court, two more cases of the Swine Flu were confirmed.  Those two cases have since recovered and have been returned to the general population.

The quarantine is for observation. Those scheduled for an upcoming court hearing have to wait. “Detainees under quarantine are removed from the active calendar,” states Elaine Komis, spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

This subject sparks heated discussion Read more »