On a recent afternoon on Anderson Lake in northeast Morgan Hill, officers who regularly patrol the waterway towed a malfunctioned jet ski out of a popular party cove and warned two people to stay off the bridge on East Dunne Avenue before sheriff’s deputies had to respond to an emergency call on land, just below the dam.
The call, in response to a fight at Santa Clara County’s Anderson Reservoir Park picnic area, cut short a June 17 visit by a reporter and photographer on the sheriff’s patrol boat. The incident ended without any visible injuries, according to Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Eastman.
Anderson Lake is the county’s largest reservoir and the most popular local water body for boating and other kinds of recreation, according to authorities. On the sweltering afternoon of June 17, scores of boats—filled with wake boarders, anglers, sunbathers and swimming children—scattered the length of the reservoir and its many hidden coves. It was a typical, crowded summer day on the water at Anderson.
Eastman has been on the sheriff’s boat patrol team for four years, and has been an instructor of boat officers for the last three years. He was on patrol June 17 with Deputy Matt Carroll. Also on the water that day, and most weekends, was a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary boat, with Cmmdr. Dave Naumann at the helm. Santa Clara County Parks also has a boat on Anderson, which is staffed by park rangers.
The three jurisdictions have some overlapping responsibilities, and some unique ones. For the sheriff’s water patrol, their primary focus is on enforcing Boating Under the Influence, or BUI, violations. Eastman said the number of such offenders has dropped significantly since the Sheriff’s Office acquired a second patrol boat—with the assistance of state grant money—in 2010. That brought the sheriff’s fleet—which also patrols Calero and Coyote reservoirs—to a total of two boats.
“Our BUI arrests are way down,” Eastman said. “I attribute that to the high-profile patrols, just being out there and the public seeing us.”
In three years from 2014 to 2016, the sheriff’s boat patrol made a total of six arrests for suspected BUI violations, according to Sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Owens. Those numbers include arrests on Calero Reservoir. But Owens added, “We prefer education over enforcement to keep our waters safe.” And the numbers do not reflect arrests by county park rangers.
The newer sheriff’s boat is equipped with modern radar, GPS and “side scanning” technology—the latter of which was useful the evening of May 30, when a local woman fell off the bridge on East Dunne Avenue to her death. Carroll responded to that scene on the sheriff’s boat, and Eastman said they used the scanning devices to try to find the victim’s body. They also transported the sheriff’s dive team to the scene.
The May 30 death of Briana Kelly illustrates why the patrol team takes any signs of trespassing on the bridge—somehow known as “the Cochrane Bridge”—seriously. One recent afternoon after the death, several deputies, at least one boat and a helicopter responded to a report of five juveniles hanging out on the bridge. They cited one of the juveniles with a trespassing violation to “make an example,” Eastman said.
On June 17, Carroll contacted two men he noticed were sitting directly under the bridge’s supports where it meets the bank. The men told him they were simply trying to find a cool place in the shade to sit down, and Carroll informed them they were trespassing and asked them to leave without further incident.
The recreational boating season will continue through the rest of the summer.
Boating reservations are encouraged through Labor Day, and can be made by calling (408) 355-2201 Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or online at gooutsideandplay.org.
