Police tackle repeat offenders

While the names Zach T. Fortune, Andres L. Rojas, John A. Lindt and William L. Hammond may not mean much to the average Petaluma citizen, they are well-known at the Petaluma Police Department.

These four Petaluma residents - along with two others - were arrested during a law enforcement sting last week targeting people on parole or probation who are considered to be at a high risk of committing crimes. The effort was part of an ongoing countywide attempt to reduce local crime by re-offenders and was paid for through a $171,126 state police department grant.

During the sting, 19-year-old Fortune was arrested on suspicion of possessing drug paraphernalia, ammunition and a billy club, as well as violating his parole. This is Fortune's third arrest since April.

Rojas, a 21-year-old Petaluman, was picked up for violating the conditions of his parole. Both he and Fortune were arrested in connection with the theft of $22,000 worth of gift cards meant for a Meadow School fundraiser program in April.

Lindt, a 31-year-old Petaluma resident, has been arrested several times over the past few years on a myriad of charges. He was arrested last week on suspicion of violating his probation and possessing brass knuckles.

As for the 43-year-old Hammond, Petaluma police spokesperson Lt. Tim Lyons said the department has been having run-ins with Hammond for almost two decades. Hammond was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of possessing drugs, billy clubs, knives and violating parole.

This is the second state-funded re-offender operation held in Sonoma County this year. Petaluma Police led the operation with the help of law enforcement agencies around the county - including the Santa Rosa Police Department, which helps coordinate the joint operations throughout the county.

Lyons said that last Wednesday's joint task force focused on 21 people throughout the county who had been identified as parolees, probationers or people under the county's supervision through realignment. Realignment is Gov. Jerry Brown's program to move thousands of non-violent offenders out of state prisons and into county jails in an effort to address overcrowding in state prisons. The influx of prisoners into county jails has forced many facilities to release offenders early and place them on a specific type of parole called "post-release community supervision."

While property crime rates across the rest of the country have declined in recent years, California has seen them rise by 11 percent. In Petaluma, break-ins and thefts have been on a steady rise since last summer. What began with commercial break-ins in the downtown area last August has transitioned to auto burglaries, bicycle thefts and residential home break-ins. Officials have struggled to pinpoint why this type of crime has increased locally.

While many in law enforcement have been quick to blame California's recent spike in property crime on realignment, Lyons maintains that it is too early to tell if the two are related He said he hopes operations like these will give law enforcement more information.

"We - and any other law enforcement agency in the county that conducts these stings - have to report back to Santa Rosa's crime analysts afterwards," said Lyons. "As we go along with more of these, we'll hopefully see a better picture of the crime in the county."

Santa Rosa Lt. Ray Navarro said that part of the reason for these check-ins on people who are recently released from county custody is to address crime impacts resulting from prison realignment.

"The money has been set aside to focus specifically on the habitual, noncompliant offenders," said Navarro. "We'll be doing risk assessments, looking at certain people we think have a greater chance to re-offend, conducting operations and analyzing the results over the next year."

Currently, Sonoma County Probation supervises more than 2,700 adults. Of that group, 385 are members of the realignment group.

Navarro said that additional operations will be held in Sonoma County over the next year, with different cities taking the lead and Santa Rosa's crime analyst department compiling data on criminal re-offenders.

(Contact Janelle Wetzstein at janelle.wetzstein@arguscourier.com)