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>>TULARE COUNTY SHERIFF BILL WHITMAN: Welcome, everybody! I'm Sheriff Bill Whitman, and I'm Tulare
County's Sheriff. And I've had the opportunity today as the Region 5 Coordinator to have
this event here in Tulare County. It's been our pleasure to have here with us today our Attorney
General Kamala Harris and all the leading executives around the county and in our Region,
Region 5. We probably had approximately - I don't know - 150 of the executives that are involved in law enforcement
here today and we've had a great conference and many issues were brought about and talked
about. We're extremely honored to have Kamala here today with us and we've had some exchange
of ideas and we've had a chance to see each other that we haven't seen in a long time. So, I've enjoyed
that. With that, one of the issues that we talked about today and, as you know, one of
the issues on the forefront for all of us is gangs and we've been assured by the Attorney
General that she's here to help us, and she's got some news that she' going to give out
today. With that, Kamala? [pause]
>>KAMALA D. HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you Sheriff. Indeed it was a great day, and it was
a day about doing what we in law enforcement enjoy doing most, which is getting together
and talking about best practices, sharing information, and talking about how we can
combine resources in a time like this, in particular, where we are looking at a budget crisis in
the State. We in law enforcement and, in particular those at a local level, are really feeling
the brunt of that. A lot of local law enforcement is being asked to do more with less. So, one
of the reasons that I'm here today is not only to convene the Zone - Zone 5 - and bring
the resources that we have through the California Department of Justice, but also to listen and
to take back that information to Sacramento, because local law enforcement keeps doing the hard
work but with fewer resources. At some point, they're going to break, and I want to take
the message back to Sacramento that we cannot overlook public safety when we make these
difficult decisions around the budget. When it comes to the resources that local law enforcement
needs - police chiefs and sheriffs - we've got to give them the support. It's in the best
interest of our state and certainly in the best interest of public safety. We are also here
today to announce a first-ever task force that is going to be based out of Tulare County,
and we are calling it the Tulare County Multi- Agency Gang Task Force. A lot of the conversation
today was based on shared information and concern about sophisticated gangs, many of
which are motivated or directed by cartels based out of Mexico, which are wreaking havoc
on communities. We know if you go down and visit our friends down in Imperial County, if you
go down to Calexico, you can go and look at the tunnels there and you'll find that they're
very sophisticated. Clearly, a lot of money went into building them because it's a business
and what's happening is, through those tunnels, guns, drugs and human beings are being trafficked
into California. So, we convened today to talk about what we can do around these issues, and
through the leadership of local law enforcement based here in this region, and in Tulare County
specifically, I heard the message loud and clear: we need more resources and we need
assistance. So, we created this task force. The members of that task force will be the
Visalia Police Department, the Porterville Police Department, Tulare County Sheriffs
Department, the Tulare Police Department, the California Department of Corrections and
the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and the Bureau of Firearms, which are based in the
California Department of Justice. The work will be to come together on a regular basis,
share information, share resources, and also take advantage of everything that we can
offer through Department of Justice when it comes to the work that we do in our crime
labs, the work that we do around forensic work that relates to fingerprints, to ballistics,
to DNA, to the work that we do that is forensic in nature around technology and, in particular,
around cell phones. This task force is going to be focused specifically on the public safety needs
of this region, and I will share that everybody better look out, because when this task force
gets going, which is going to be in just a minute, gang crime and gangs in this area
better really be warned. It is about dealing with the fact that the trafficking of narcotics,
guns and human beings will not be tolerated, and that we also recognize that these crimes
cross jurisdictional borders. So, guess what, we are too, and we are talking with each other,
and we are doing the work in coordination to make sure that we suppress this gang activity.
So, I want to thank everyone who is here and joins us today. I want to thank the great
District Attorney of Tulare County Phil Cline. I want to thank Chief Jerry Breckenridge,
Chief Chuck McMillan, Chief Probation Officer Janet Honadle, and Assistant Chief of the
CHP - which has been a wonderful collaborator and actually announced today that they are
going to be a part of this task force - and Jim Abrams is here as the Assistant Chief of CHP
and then Parole. We have Agents Gordon McClaskey and Chuck Villarreal. So, with that,
I'm going to now turn it over to another great leader in law enforcement and someone
who has been a wonderful representative of this region in Sacramento and throughout the
State, and that is Chief Colleen Mestas. [pause]
>>CHIEF COLLEEN MESTAS: Thank you very much. It's an absolute honor. you'll always
remember the day in your career that you felt that you did something to give back to the community
and today that day is definitely mine. I want to thank the Attorney General for her leadership
and direction. This has been much needed in Tulare County. We saw that through the partnership
of Department of Justice that we formed last year and conducted many months of hard work,
investigation tactics, resources that we didn't have on a local level, what we can do
to impact the gang problem here in Tulare County. The leadership from the Department
of Justice was overwhelmingly helpful and we were able to put over 36 individuals back
in prison for gang crimes where they belong. Through the collaboration and partnership
in law enforcement, I absolutely believe that today is the only way that we can stay on
the enforcement side. There are a lot of efforts with prevention and intervention that we use,
but on the enforcement side when you use intelligence- based operations and you use technology and
investigative tactics, and you collaborate - which I believe is a demand from the public
right now for law enforcement to collaborate and partnership, especially in the fiscal
times were in - that is how we will be effective. and I've promised all of my colleagues behind
me - because it's literally been a year in the making to try to get where we are today - that
I will maintain focus and we will do everything that we can county-wide collectively to work
on the gang problem and I really do appreciate the Attorney General and all of the leadership
in the Department of Justice that have not only partnered with us to get us here today. I'm
looking forward to a great 2011 and thereafter, and, yeah, the gangs do need to look
out in Tulare County. [end]