Sheriff, fire and code officials report uptick in calls for service and outline response and training

Riverside County Sheriff Captain Veil (transcript label: Captain Rails) told the Canyon Lake City Council that fourth-quarter calls for service rose modestly compared with the prior year, with October at 388 calls, November 345 and December 432. Captain Veil said he hand‑sorted calls for three months to identify dispatched versus self‑initiated activity; for October he reported 189 dispatched and 199 self‑generated calls, November 167 dispatched and 178 self‑generated, and December 202 dispatched and 230 self‑generated calls. He summarized average daily call volumes at about 12.5 (October) and 13.9 (December).

Veil reviewed arrests and criminal patterns: October included five felony arrests (trespass, public intoxication, warrants, one domestic violence and one assault with a deadly weapon); November showed four felony arrests and three misdemeanor arrests (including warrants, public intoxication, domestic violence and one drug-possession-with-handgun arrest); and December had three arrests (two felonies and one misdemeanor). Part I violent crimes were primarily aggravated-assault incidents and mostly domestic‑violence related; October had five aggravated assaults, November three and December one.

On property crime, deputies reported theft and larceny as the most frequent offenses; October recorded one burglary, six larcenies and two vehicle thefts. Veil also gave average response times by priority: priority one calls averaged about 8.9 minutes (October), 7.1 minutes (November) and 9.7 minutes (December) from dispatch to arrival; priority-two calls were roughly 15 minutes.

Fire Chief Mike Latendres presented December fire-department statistics: Canyon Lake Fire ran 87 emergency responses in December, including five fires, 58 medical aids, six service calls, 13 good-intent calls and five false alarms. The five fires included an oven/cooking fire, small outside fires (mulch/tree/debris) and a trash-truck fire; in one instance the city’s crews used a fire-department connection on a CR&R trash truck to extinguish the load, and CR&R transported the load to its yard for complete extinguishment.

Chief Latendres reported strong turnout times for December: a 45‑second average dispatch-to-enroute turnout and a travel time that produced a total response time of 6 minutes, 6 seconds on a favorable month; his 90th‑percentile metrics showed a one‑minute‑12‑second turnout and a 7:34 travel time for a total response of 8:23 in the year’s less optimal periods. The fire department responded 10 times outside the city limits in December (mostly in Lake Elsinore and Menifee ZIP-code areas) and CAL FIRE responded into Canyon Lake six times that month. December training totaled 314 hours; the department logged over 3,186 training hours for the year. Chief Latendres announced CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training scheduled for Feb. 21–23 and invited residents to sign up on the city’s fire department/disaster preparedness web page.

Ruby from city Code Enforcement reported December enforcement and registration activity: two MPDS violations that were immediately rectified; six verbal warnings for unauthorized motorized vehicles on BLM land; 372 registered residential rental properties (355 renewed, 17 pending renewal, three newly discovered properties now registered); eight in‑person inspections and 13 self‑certifications; business-license activity showed two new commercial registrations, two new home-occupations and 10 out-of-city registrations; of about 850 renewal notices mailed in November, 470 renewals had been completed by the reporting date.

Council members thanked staff for the detailed breakdowns and asked follow-up questions about camera‑sharing programs and the frequency of reporting; Captain Veil said deputies had used resident-supplied camera footage in at least two or three investigations and that the city plans to provide more regular compiled call‑type reporting.