WELCOME FARM WATCH READERS!

Agricultural Crimes Detective Ray Dominguez had the following update from his activities and investigations around Ventura County:

Winning…folks it looks like we had limited criminal activity reported over the Independence Day Weekend! With only two reported agriculture related thefts during that period, it clearly indicates to me that your efforts combined with that of patrol deputies countywide are paying dividends when it comes to protecting your property.

Since our last edition, I have received reports of farming equipment being stolen from two ranches. The first report was of a stolen Kubota tractor from the unincorporated area of Oxnard, and the second involves the theft of a John Deere farm implement referred to as a “Chopper” from a Ventura farm. I’m still waiting for the victims in these cases to provide some identifying information to share with you in future stolen equipment flyers.

Metal thefts also continue to be a problem with some recent activity reported in the Saticoy area. In one of these cases, the suspect(s) used the victim’s own picking ladders to gain access to his wind machines. The suspect(s) forced entry into the electrical control boxes and stole copper wire and batteries. There are no suspects identified in this case.

This leads me to comment on an important crime prevention program the Sheriff’s Office is currently working on updating. Earlier this year I mentioned that I was working with Sheriff’s Office Crime Analysts on developing a new database. This new database is being developed to store the information related to our Owner Applied Number (OAN) Program. The analysts have been diligently working on this new database and have told me it’s just about ready to launch.

First a little background on the OAN Program: It was initially established by the FBI and later adopted by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. The program has been in use by the Sheriff’s Office since the early 1990’s.

The OAN Program is a system that was established whereby each state and county is assigned a number which is recorded in the NCIC (National Crime Information Center). A directory containing these numbers is available to each law enforcement agency for use in identifying the various states and counties. The county sheriff’s offices or farm bureau within the state issue the remaining portion of the number to each individual. The system was devised to readily permit cooperation with law enforcement officials of other states by the use of an interstate computerized law enforcement communications system. This system allows law enforcement agencies to locate equipment owners within any state and county in the United States, whether the stolen equipment is found across the country or within the same county.

Many of you are familiar with the program and have participated since its inception. For those of you not familiar with the program, but interested in getting more information, you can go to the California Farm Bureau Federation website by following this link www.cfbf.com/ruralcrime/oan.cfm . Once you access the website you can also click on the link for the ACTION Project (see www.agcrime.net) for additional information.

The ACTION Project is the state repository for the OAN Program database. I have been working with Criminal Investigator Kurt McPhetridge of the ACTION Project on a plan to update our records and share that information with him for inclusion in their statewide database.

As part of our efforts to update the records locally, many of you will be receiving letters asking that you provide updated information as it relates to an OAN already issued to you. The letter will include an application form that will need to be completed and returned to the Sheriff’s Office. Please note that a new application form will need to be completed for each OAN issued to you as they are site specific, and many of you have multiple OAN’s issued to you for different properties. This will also serve as an opportunity for you to request additional numbers if you have expanded your business or acquired new properties.

The letters should be going out sometime in August…so keep an eye out for them. If you don’t receive a letter and believe you should have, please contact me at (805) 384-4726 or send me an email at ray.dominguez@ventura.org.

Thanks in advance for participating in the program and your cooperation,

Detective Ray Dominguez

Note: If you suspect illegal activity on your property:

Call the Sheriff’s Office immediately at 911.
Be a good witness
Note suspect descriptions such as age, height, weight, facial hair, clothing, and shoe type.
If a vehicle is involved, obtain a license plate number and note vehicle color, body damage, bumper stickers, camper shell, after market tires and wheels, etc.
Provide the dispatcher with information about the time and last known direction of travel.

If you are not sure of how to address the problem or would like additional crime prevention tips please contact your local Sheriff’s Office substation or Detective Ray Dominguez directly at (805) 384-4726 or by email at ray.dominguez@ventura.org.

Contacts:

Camarillo Detective Mark Corriea, mark.corriea@ventura.org

Fillmore Detective John Fox john.fox@ventura.org

Ventura Detective Christine Rettura Christine.rettura@ventura.org

Agricultural Crimes Detective, Ray Dominguez at Ray.Dominguez@ventura.org

As always, we would like to thank Sheriff’s Crime Analyst Karen Brown and Det. Ray Dominguez, for this issue’s great crime and alert update.

Be alert and always safe!

Monica (797-6338)

Geoff Dean - Sheriff

John Crombach and Gary Pentis - Assistant Sheriffs