Chief Dyer explained, "Individuals that we are arresting five, six times in a six month period those are the people we are going to reserve our jail beds for."
Those on the list of the city's top five car thieves are believed to be responsible for hundreds of thefts. Because of overcrowding in the jail they are usually released and back on the streets in no time.
"We know the individuals we arrest for auto theft burglary, the prolific thieves they thumb their nose at the system," said Chief Dyer. "They know if they are arrested they are going to be released in a few hours or a day and they go right back to doing what they do best, and that's stealing cars and breaking into cars."
Police say most car thieves get just a few hundred dollars for each car they steal and sell to a chop shop. Dyer believes most steal to feed a methamphetamine habit, and hopes having guaranteed jail beds will be one way to get some of them into treatment.
Chief Dyer said, "What I'm hoping is that now that we have a guaranteed bed that we can say would you like to stay in jail or would you like to have some treatment and see if some of those may take advantage of it."
County Supervisors Board Chairman Henry Perea and the rest of the board agreed to the deal.
Perea added, "It just makes sense that we do this and we do it quickly."
Under the agreement, the city will pay the county $520 a day, for each of the five beds, about $130,000.00 for the rest of the budget year. Dyer believes it's a small price to pay.
Chief Dyer said, "This is going to prevent them from thumbing their nose at the criminal justice system because we are going to have guaranteed beds for them."
