Monterey County Sheriff’s Office stops patrolling in King City

The King City Police Chief has confirmed with NewsChannel 5 that the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office has stopped patrolling the city during the weekends. King City Police Chief Ronald Forgue said Friday night the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office made the decision Thursday.

Now, King City officers are in full control of the city. The Sheriff’s Office was helping out after the King City Police Department became short-staffed following several internal arrests.

The Sheriff’s Office first started helping out nightly, then reduced their time to the weekends, up until now. Chief Forgue said the Sheriff’s Office was supposed to help out until September 4th, but stopped a little early because Sheriff Steve Bernal said they need their manpower back.

“I just want the criminals of the South County to know that even though we aren’t patrolling in King City,” Bernal explained. “We are not going away and we are going to keep working together with the South County cities to make sure we dismantle gangs.”

Forgue said the department will be able to handle the change, and if need be, he will help with patrols as well and rely on mutual aid from the Sheriff’s Office.

“We adjusted our hours now and we are in the process of hiring three more officers,” Forgue said. “We’ve got a couple more officers in background and so I think we’ll be OK. It’s just a matter of shifting hours, a little overtime and basically identifying the hot spots, our impact zone and time of day that we need staffing immediate patrols.”