SANTA CRUZ — Local law enforcement agencies reporting crime statics said their increased enforcement due to New Year’s Eve-related revelry resulted in a relatively quiet and controlled holiday this year.
Impaired drivers traveling on Santa Cruz County roads, however, were plentiful, by the California Highway Patrol’s standards. During its maximum enforcement period, running from Tuesday night through midnight Wednesday, CHP officers on patrol handed out 11 DUI arrests and 142 traffic citations — 86 for speeding. In a special Highway 1 speed enforcement detail, officers issued 35 citations and one 1 DUI arrest. While the agency noted there were no road fatalities in its jurisdiction, its spokesperson wrote on social media that officers responded to a “series of DUI crashes,” including on New Year’s Eve night, after the driver of a silver SUV flipped over in a field on Lee Road near Highway 129 and suffered minor injuries, and a driver traveling northbound on Highway 17 near Glenwood Drive crashed into the concrete center wall multiple times. Both drivers were arrested on suspicion of felony DUI charges.
Downtown Santa Cruz’s annual New Year’s Eve celebrations gathered an estimated 3,000 people at its peak. In an effort dubbed its safety enhancement zone, Santa Cruz triples fines issued between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in the downtown corridor for municipal code violations such as possessing alcoholic beverages in public and other unsafe or illegal behavior. During this year’s crime period, officers delivered four citations, nine triple fines, two misdemeanor arrests and one felony. No comparable statistics to recent years were immediately available, however, in 2020 officers made six arrests, including two warrant arrests and four for public intoxication, and issued five citations. Downtown crowd sizes appear to have been on the decline since a recent high of 7,000 people in 2013, according to Sentinel reports.
“Crowds downtown were minimal and (the) majority of people moved about peacefully,” Santa Cruz Police Department spokesperson Katie Lee quoted Deputy Chief Jose Garcia in a text to the Sentinel. “Likely attributable to our up-staffing of police resources. The neighborhoods were mostly quiet and service calls were also minimal with no major incidents occurring. We appreciate our residents and visitors for participating in a safe and enjoyable New Year’s Eve.”
The Scotts Valley Police Department celebrated turning a New Year’s Day retail shoplifting arrest by an alleged repeat offender from Los Gatos into a proposed felony charge, due to changes in state law under Proposition 36. The unidentified woman allegedly was caught walking out of Target with multiple cosmetic items, according to the department’s social media posts.
In the unincorporated county, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office discovered “nothing of note in our logs for NYE-related celebrations,” according to agency spokesperson Ashley Keehn.
On New Year’s Eve, Watsonville Police Department crime logs show the arrest of a 35-year-old man suspected of public intoxication on Beach and Rodriguez streets. Into the new year, a 27-year-old man allegedly was causing a disturbance in the emergency room and refusing to leave. He was arrested on suspicion of trespassing and drunken disorderly conduct around 2 a.m. By 3:30 a.m., police arrested a 42-year-old man for DUI after he allegedly fell asleep inside a vehicle. Officers issued the driver a citation and released him at the police department, according to the log.
