It has been a decade since the Hollister Police Department had a traffic officer, but that could change if the county Board of Supervisors agrees to double the local motor vehicle fee to $2 and the commercial vehicle fee to $4 . Assembly Bill 767, passed last year, authorizes California counties to increase the fee to fund vehicle theft task forces or DUI enforcement efforts. Such a tax is expected to bring in $55,000 per year in San Benito County, with the remaining $95,000 in annual costs to be borne by the city.
Holliser Police Captain Carlos Reynoso received the city council’s blessing on Monday to approach the Board of Supervisors with the idea, which would fund approximately one-third of the cost of the new position. An additional $32,000 in one-time costs would be incurred for a motorcycle, radio and miscellaneous equipment.
“Despite receiving several Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) grants, the City of Hollister continues to have problems with speeding vehicles and drunk drivers,” Reynoso wrote in a report to the council. While that grant funding pays for officers to incur overtime for DUI patrols, it is “only a part-time solution,” he said. “The way to reduce vehicle-related deaths and injuries within our community is to reduce the speeding and unsafe driving. A traffic motor officer is an ideal solution to the problem.”
He said that studies have shown that increased traffic enforcement leads to an overall reduction in aggressive driving and speeding, while DUI patrols and checkpoints encourage drivers not to operate a vehicle while intoxicated.
Since grant funding expired in 2004, Hollister police officers conduct traffic enforcement between regular service calls, according to Reynoso. If supervisors approve the increased vehicle fee, a new traffic officer would split time between traffic enforcement and DUI patrols.Â
In 2003, the last full year that local police had a traffic enforcement officer, nearly 2,100 traffic citations were written. A decade later, that number had fallen to 1,104.Â
Reynoso said police are recommending a motorcycle officer because they “blend in a lot better” in traffic and, therefore, could be more effective in finding violators.
Mayor Ignacio Velasquez said that he is “happy to see this” plan. “It’s time we really crack down on the traffic violations.” He added that if people complain about the extra patrols, he’ll tell them “slow down and you won’t get a ticket.”
Also at the meeting, Hollister Police Chief David Westrick announced that he would know within a month or so whether funding would become available for a second school resource officer, with a possible start date ranging from March to June 2015.