RANCHO SANTA FE — Compared to last year, burglaries in the Ranch have experienced a sharp decrease, that’s according to Chief Matt Wellhouser of the Rancho Santa Fe Patrol during his semi-annual report presentation to the RSF Association and its board of directors.
The semi-annual report stretches from January to June.
Wellhouser told the board and Covenant members that they have been very fortunate in the last six months.
“We’ve only recorded about four burglaries, a couple of those were construction site thefts where they broke into storage containers for tools or maybe into the house to take equipment,” he said.
Compared to last year, Wellhouser said, they had close to 18 burglaries in a six-month period.
“So knock on wood because we don’t want it ever to go up,” he said.
Wellhouser went on to say that for the first six months of 2015, the RSF Patrol had 2,169 calls for service.
For last year, the total annual calls were more than 4,600 so Wellhouser anticipated the annual numbers for 2015 to be around the same.
“Our response time for the community, for every call we have is an average of 6.43 minutes which is a very good response time,” he said.
In the audience, Wellhouser pointed out lead representatives from the Oceanside-based California Highway Patrol and North Coastal Station, which represent the Sheriff’s department.
“We work with both of these organizations hand in hand,” Wellhouser said. “As a matter of fact, last year we exchanged pleasantries about 181 times with the sheriff and about 100 times with the CHP.”
Wellhouser stated that the good relationship they have with these law enforcement agencies enhances the Ranch.
As for vehicle collisions, those numbers had increased for the six-month timeframe compared to last year’s report. The collision number was 17. Wellhouser attributed the increase in collisions to speed and distracted driving.
“Unfortunately we had a fatal accident in May over on Via De La Valle,” he said.
In June, on El Camino Real, he said, there was a rollover crash.
One person was able to get out of the vehicle while another was trapped inside but was safely extricated. RSF Patrol officers found the vehicle and put out the fire.
“We were commended by the fire district for that,” he said, noting how they saved the person’s life.
With the many cars passing through the Ranch in the mornings and afternoons, Wellhouser wants to make sure that proper law enforcement is in place on the roads.
Over the six-month period Wellhouser’s officers performed more than 15,000 vacation/security checks.
He encouraged members to call and schedule these security checks for both short-term and long-term vacations.
“In a nutshell, we’ve done a very good job I think in the first six months,” he said.
