Police saturate the streets in sweep

BARSTOW • Officers from area law enforcement agencies made their presence known on Barstow streets Friday for the second sweep during August, arresting 28 people on probation violations, warrants, and drug possession charges.

Starting at 4 p.m., more 40 officers from ten departments hit the streets to check up on probationers and look for crime. Officers and deputies participating in the sweep were part of the San Bernardino County Movement Against Street Hoodlums (SMASH), a group of officers who participate in police sweeps county-wide.

Teams of officers with a list of targets drove down Barstow streets and surrounded houses in attempt to make sure that parolees and probationers were following the terms of their sentences. Half an hour into the sweep, five people had been arrested.

Barstow Police officer Andrew Reyes said that parolees often give one address to authorities and actually live at another.

“(Parolees) will keep an address and then live someplace else — if they have something to hide, they’ll keep it there,” said Reyes.

At the second stop Reyes and other officers in his team made, they found a parolee who said he didn’t live at the address he was supposed to be at, and found a man with a warrant out for his arrest at the same location.

Both men were handcuffed and brought to the SMASH command post at the Cora Harper Fitness Center gym, where law enforcement personnel processed those brought in during the sweep and transported them the Barstow jail. Medical staff were at the ready to take blood samples for those believed to be using illegal drugs.

Officers from a variety of agencies, including the Fontana and Redlands Police Departments, took part in the sweep.

Barstow Police Department Detective Adam Cortinas said that each department pays for their own officer’s labor for the SMASH sweeps, but that the sweeps aren’t as big as they used to be due to budget cuts.

Cortinas said that Barstow SMASH sweeps have netted as many as 60 arrests in the past, but that he expected fewer arrests to be made this year due to downward trends in crime.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4126 or adome@desertdispatch.com