Reports of violent crimes and property crimes are largely stagnant in Half Moon Bay — however, arrests are up in both categories — and arrests for driving under the influence, as well as citations for parking tickets, have both risen since last year, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Capt. Richard Cheechov told councilmembers at a meeting Oct. 21.
Forty-five violent crimes, including homicide, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault, were reported for the 2024-25 fiscal year, Cheechov said, the same number as last year. Eighty-six property crimes were reported, a minor 3% decrease from the previous year.
Corresponding arrests for these crimes, however, are up by significant percentages, with 31 arrests made for violent crimes — an 11% increase from last year — and 23 arrests made for property crimes, a 35% increase from last year.
Cheechov warned councilmembers to look at these percentages with a grain of salt, however, since the small number of crimes in Half Moon Bay to begin with can inflate percentage numbers.
“[With a] small sample size, small differences look big,” he said.
Arrests for DUIs are also up significantly with 96 arrests made for the 2024-25 fiscal year, as opposed to 77 the year prior. Cheechov attributed that rise to patrol officers who are trained in the signs of drunk driving and can conduct subsequent arrests.
“I don’t think it’s an indication of a greater problem, I think it’s an indication of more proactive policing making the streets safer,” he said.
Councilmembers lauded the more enterprising approach to DUI cases, with one, Patric Bo Jonsson, encouraging police to continue disincentivizing inebriated driving.
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“We have four [holiday] weeks coming up — I think we should be proactive on policing, utilizing our signs, ‘drinking and driving is not allowed,’” he said.
Parking citations are up this year, from 2,253 last period to 2,710 this period. Moving violations are down slightly, from 568 last period to 518 this period. Traffic collisions — which happen most commonly on downtown Main Street, Main Street and State Route 92, and Kelly Avenue and Highway 1, Cheechov said — are also down, from 61 in fiscal year 2023-24 to 52 in fiscal year 2024-25.
“Collisions have gone down but, again, it’s not a huge amount, and I wouldn’t get overly happy about it,” he said. “We’re headed in the right direction, but it’s not a huge number.”
E-bike safety should continue to be a top priority for the Sheriff’s Office, Councilmember Deborah Penrose said, citing multiple instances of riders running stop signs and exceeding the speed limit.
“I don’t know what we need to do about it and I don’t know what the sheriff can do, but I do think it’s becoming an issue, and it’s getting worse,” she said. “It’s not getting better, because more and more people are buying electric bikes.”
“I’ll address the elephant in the room,” he said. “Obviously the Office of Sheriff is now vacant. I want to assure you there is a continuity of operations. As of now, the undersheriff is discharging the duties of the sheriff.”
=> there is little to no enforcement here, so we have to assume thousands actually tens of thousands moving violations and people driving drunk in HMB.
Now the 'Penrose-Nightmare':
- "multiple" e-bike riders ran a STOP sign.
- a sack of grain dropped in Ohio.
Apparently the "California Stop" is council member Penrose's biggest nightmare, but not when done in a car or on a regular bicycle - she only has a problem with e-bikes.
We can tell, Penrose is not a friendly driver herself and never rides a bike with children. Otherwise she would know that 80% of the time friendly people in cars wave kids on bicycles through the intersection.
Basically there is no real issue here, but council member Penrose is a Democrat and Democrats like to 'punch down' instead of 'punching up'. She is discriminating and bullying instead of providing safer environments for these kids.
Able, rich people - like Penrose - might not know that slow moving electric bicycles (aka e-bikes) are a Mobility Device, that is recommended and endorsed by ADA and AARP.
They also might not know that the "Idaho STOP" is already used and endorsed in 14 red and blue states in the US. It has also been approved by California twice, but Gavin Newsom keeps vetoing.
Democrats are more interested in bribing Oil Companies to provide more and cheaper green house gases.
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Let these numbers sink in:
- 2,710 parking violations
- 518 moving violations
- 96 DUI arrests made for the 2024-25 fiscal year
- 52 traffic collisions in downtown
=> there is little to no enforcement here, so we have to assume thousands actually tens of thousands moving violations and people driving drunk in HMB.
Now the 'Penrose-Nightmare':
- "multiple" e-bike riders ran a STOP sign.
- a sack of grain dropped in Ohio.
Apparently the "California Stop" is council member Penrose's biggest nightmare, but not when done in a car or on a regular bicycle - she only has a problem with e-bikes.
We can tell, Penrose is not a friendly driver herself and never rides a bike with children. Otherwise she would know that 80% of the time friendly people in cars wave kids on bicycles through the intersection.
Basically there is no real issue here, but council member Penrose is a Democrat and Democrats like to 'punch down' instead of 'punching up'. She is discriminating and bullying instead of providing safer environments for these kids.
Able, rich people - like Penrose - might not know that slow moving electric bicycles (aka e-bikes) are a Mobility Device, that is recommended and endorsed by ADA and AARP.
They also might not know that the "Idaho STOP" is already used and endorsed in 14 red and blue states in the US. It has also been approved by California twice, but Gavin Newsom keeps vetoing.
Democrats are more interested in bribing Oil Companies to provide more and cheaper green house gases.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.