In 1996, the California Legislature found that there has been no concentrated effort applied to the prevention of crimes against the agricultural industry. Currently, no national or state agency keeps track of statistics on rural crime. According to media reports, this state lost millions of dollars worth of crops, livestock, and equipment in 1994 and 1995. A majority of these crimes occurred in agriculturally-based counties. However, there has been no effort on the part of any state or local agency to accurately record these types of crimes.
The proliferation of agricultural crime in the various rural counties of this state is a threat to the vitality of our rich agrarian tradition. Rural crime if left unchecked, endangers an entire industry that is vital to America's continued economic role in the world.
The County of Tulare has developed the Tulare County Agricultural Crimes Investigations Unit. Tulare County's Agricultural Commissioner, District Attorney's Office, and the Sheriff's Department, make up the task force. The task force is an interactive team working together to develop problem solving and crime control techniques, to encourage timely reporting of crimes, and to evaluate the results of these activities.
The task force is administered by the Tulare County District Attorney's Office under a joint powers agreement with the Tulare County Sheriff's Office. The task force includes the Office of the Tulare County Agricultural Commissioner.
The staff for this pilot project consists of a Tulare County Sheriff's sergeant, four detective sheriffs, a deputy district attorney, and a criminal investigator.
The Tulare County Sheriff's Department provides the necessary patrol and protective services to the agricultural community.
The Rural Crime Task Force has implemented several programs to assist the agricultural community in the fight against rural crime.
The FBI established the owner applied marking system. It provides every member with a method to identify their property. The OAN system consists of ten digits that are unique to each rancher or farmer.
The Tulare County Rural Crime Unit will assist and show farmers and ranchers how to apply the OAN system to their property on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please call (559) 740-4300 for an appointment today.
This is the rural counterpart to the Neighborhood Watch Program that has been a success in the urban areas of the county.
The Rural Crime Unit will advise the rancher or farmer on ways to make their business, home, and property safe and how to set up an area watch program between neighbors.
The officers of the Rural Crime Unit give presentations to various agriculturally-related organizations. This allows the officers to build a bridge between law enforcement and the agricultural community.
This allows the agricultural community to address their concerns and to be informed on the progress of the unit.
It gives the community a better understanding of the justice system.
It allows the officers of the Rural Crime Unit to be more accessible, and to act on the needs of the community faster.
Have you ever wanted to change the law to help your family or your business? When District Attorney Phil Cline wrote the proposal for the Rural Crime Program, he designed it to promote new legislation. The Rural Crime Prevention Program gathers statistical information about rural crime theft. The information is continually analyzed to determine if the current laws are adequately protecting farmers and ranchers. If there are weaknesses in the laws, the District Attorney's Office works to fix the problems.
The Rural Crime Program has been operational for approximately one year. In that time period, we have developed several new ideas for laws (see below). If you have any ideas about how to improve these laws, please contact us at the following numbers and explain what you would change.
Any person who commits two or more agricultural theft felonies, and where the total loss is over $10,000 dollars, will be punished by an additional term of imprisonment in the state prison for one year.
When a defendant is convicted of two or more felonies, his property may be levied upon by the court to pay restitution to the victim.
In any case in which the defendant is ordered to pay more than $10,000 dollars in restitution, the court will order the defendant to pay interest at the rate of 10 percent per annum on the principal amount to the victim.
Tulare County District Attorney's
Office
Special Investigations Division
Rural Crime: (559) 733-6600
Fax: (559) 730-2658