As California stresses the need to crack down on crime, Bakersfield is a key city of concern

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — As California cracks down on crime, Bakersfield and Kern County residents will see more law enforcement moving forward, due to a new partnership between the Bakersfield Police Department and California Highway Patrol.

It’s what Governor Gavin Newsom calls a “crime suppression partnership,” and it’s part of more than $1 billion spent on crime in the state since 2019.

“You’ll definitely have a lot more presence when it comes to the CHP officers,” said Officer Tomas Martinez with CHP Bakersfield. “We’ll have personnel from the surrounding areas that can come and assist us when it comes to these operations.”

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Officer Martinez added the partnership means more resources and personnel locally.

Such joint partnerships are already ongoing in San Francisco and Oakland.

“It’s a similar effort where we’re going to do proactive policing focusing on illegal activities, along the lines of DUIs, cars that have been stolen, retail theft efforts,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom during a Wednesday morning press conference.

Newsom said compared to the statewide average, Kern County sees higher rates of property and violent crime, as well as arrest rates.

The partnership targets roadway dangers and vehicle and retail theft, which Officer Martinez noted there’s a lot of it in Bakersfield.

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“[The partnership is] preventative in the way that we’re visible, we’re there, you’ll see a lot of law enforcement presence, and also it can be very, very responsive with us having more resources available that can actually respond to those incidents,” he stated.

BPD declined an interview request with Chief Greg Terry.

“This is an operation that’s now underway,” the governor said. “It’s an operation that, based off the feedback I’ve already received, is proven to already produce some meaningful results.”

Martinez detailed their most recent operation, a few weeks ago.

“I know our last operation was conducted in the area of Highway 58 and 99,” he explained. “That netted approximately 200 citations, two arrests, recovered several stolen vehicles.”

Jaime Coffee, a CHP spokesperson, told 17 News via email that in the coming days, the agency hopes to provide early stats on local enforcement.

Coffee also noted the number of CHP officers engaged in the joint operations can fluctuate. It will include Bakersfield and surrounding offices, as well as CHP “personnel from specialized units within [their] Central Division Investigative Services Unit.”

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Martinez said operations are not daily — they’re planned in advance with set goals in mind. Target areas of town will be law enforcement officials’ destinations for these joint operations.

The next one is coming in a few weeks, he said.

“Some of the operations that you will see just your regular patrol officers that are conducting these areas where drivers aren’t following the rules of the road,” Martinez added. “They’re speeding, they’re driving under the influence.”

The Bakersfield Police Department has previously received over $6 million from the state’s Organized Retail Theft Prevention Grant Program.

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