Clatskanie Together Coalition

by Deborah Steele Hazen

    Officers from the Clatskanie Police Department, Columbia and Clatsop County sheriff’s offices, Oregon State Police (OSP) and Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) swept across the Clatskanie and Rainier areas and portions of Clatsop County Feb. 28-29 with the goals of serving warrants, conducting “probable cause” arrests, enforcing traffic safety compliance and truck load limits.

    The law enforcement sweep was funded by the Clatskanie Together Coalition (CTC) with its federal “Weed and Seed” grant to “weed” law breakers, and “seed” intervention and prevention programs.

    “It’s very important that people understand that this was something the departments could not have done without funding from the CTC,” said CTC director Robin Fouché .

    The Columbia and Clatsop sheriff’s deputies who were involved in the two-day sweep were “on their off-time” from their regular shifts, and were paid through the CTC grant, as were over-time hours of the Clatskanie Police Department.

    OSP and ODOT officers involved were not paid by the CTC grant, but “wanted to join our party,” Clatskanie Police Chief Marvin Hoover explained.

    In planning for the two-day sweep, Hoover said, “we looked at where we’re having safety issues,” and decided to concentrate on truck safety, drug interdiction through traffic enforcement, and the warrant sweep.

    Five Columbia County Sheriff’s officers, four Clatsop County officers, four Clatskanie police officers, and four OSP officers were involved in the operation from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Feb. 28, and from about 10 a.m. to about 8 p.m. on Feb. 29. Police dogs from Clatskanie, Vernonia and Clatsop County participated.

    During the two day “sweep,” officers attempted to serve a total of 138 warrants and successfully served 12, with all of the subjects taken into custody. Intelligence was gathered on 42 warrant subjects, according to Hoover.  It was learned that 34 have moved out of state, one is dead, 39 are “whereabouts unknown,” and five are incarcerated in other facilities. Additionally, Columbia County parole and probation contacted “two or three of their clients who had open detainers or warrants,” Hoover said.

    Approximately 90 traffic stops were made from Seaside to the east end of Rainier and the surrounding rural area on county roads as well as Highway 30. A total of 30 citations were issued, with three arrests, two felony warrants, and one unlawful possession of marijuana.

    Columbia County Sheriff’s Sergeant Russ George, in cooperation with ODOT personnel, conducted two days of truck inspections. Nineteen citations were issued on various violations from overloading to faulty equpment. Thirty-two warnings were issued, and there were 13 class B truck inspections (check lights, brakes, paperwork, etc.). Eleven trucks were put out of service for various problems.

    Hoover reported that five or six trucks tried to out-wait the weigh station opening, were found, brought in and all of them had major violations. One truck was over-weight on the first day and received a citation, and was even farther over-weight the second date, Hoover said.

    More such operations are planned in the future.

    In regard to the warrants, “we really just want to put people in compliance with probation or the courts,” Hoover said. In the case of drugs, “we want to arrest them.”

Warrant and Probable Cause Sweeps

The following statistics have been compiled for the second warrant sweep.

Our second warrant sweep was conducted on August 15^th, 2008 from 12 pm to 12 am and was scaled back from the first sweep and lasted only 12 hours.  We also conducted a surprise sweep scheduled within seven days later to attempt to serve warrants on persons known to be in the area but, missed during the initial sweep.  On this sweep we used a total of six law enforcement officers and three Parole and Probation officers and on the surprise sweep only two law enforcement officers.

Our primary mission was to utilize intelligence gathered from the first sweep and attempt to serve warrants in the Clatskanie are.

Our secondary mission was traffic safety enforcement, home visits of persons in the area on parole or probation and extra patrol of known MIP locations.

Overall the warrant sweep was very successful.  We attempted to serve approximately 60 warrants in the Clatskanie area in which a total of 24 warrants were served.  (Not all of the warrants were Clatskanie Area Warrants) and 14 people were arrested.