Deputies Targeting Off-Road Violators

Sheriff’s deputies will beef up patrols in rural areas in response to the increasing number of thrill seekers who tear across private property in their all-terrain vehicles.

Driving Jeep Cherokees, Chevrolet Blazers and Enduro motorcycles, about 11 sheriff deputies and sergeants will sweep through rural county areas looking for trespassers. According to Sheriff’s Department spokesman Brian Koppenjan, all-terrain vehicles cause erosion and crop damage and rattle property owners when they speed across private ranch or agricultural land.

“Some of the landowners have been complaining that these off-road motorists have been a little aggressive lately, even confrontational,” Koppenjan said.

This weekend, the Off-Road Enforcement Detail will patrol the Santa Clara River bottom while a Sheriff’s Department helicopter cruises overhead. Koppenjan said the department also will target the Ventura River bottom and the east county hills surrounding Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

“There is a kind of misperception that this is public land,” Koppenjan said. “The land is private property. [All-terrain vehicles] are not to be there.”

The Sheriff’s Department will interview off-road motorists caught on private land over the weekend to find out how much they know about the law. In the future, Koppenjan said, violators could be cited or risk having their vehicles impounded.

“In extreme cases, they could be arrested,” Koppenjan said.

Once divided into east and west patrol units, the Off-Road Enforcement Detail recently merged into a countywide policing force.

All deputies in the enforcement detail have other full-time posts in the department and will patrol rural areas only as needed.