Wasco police report OTS grant, detail carjacking arrests and stepped-up holiday enforcement

Chief Mora told the Wasco City Council the department met an internal youth-outreach goal and provided an overview of recent public-safety activity, telling the council the department recorded roughly 912 total incidents, 479 calls for service and 433 officer-generated incidents for the month discussed. He said officers conducted 155 traffic-enforcement stops and issued 54 citations.

On investigative work, Chief Mora said a January 26 carjacking resulted in arrests and that prosecutors filed serious charges: "one's facing 45 years, the other one's facing 33 years," he said. Mora declined to elaborate on investigative details because the case had been ongoing.

Mora highlighted a selective traffic enforcement grant from OTS in the amount of $55,000 to fund overtime for DUI checkpoints, saturation patrols and other enforcement details. "So this holiday season our goal is to have 0 fatalities," Mora said, adding the grant allows the department to pay officers for special enforcement details.

During council questions, Council member Martinez asked whether enforcement would be stricter during the holidays; Mora answered, "Yes. We're gonna be specifically looking for primary collision factors," naming speed and failure to stop as priorities. Mora said department operations already include saturation patrols and checkpoints and that residents should expect increased police presence.

The council did not take formal action on the report; Mora concluded by inviting questions and noting community outreach efforts tied to department programs.