In the early fall of 2024, the Sheriff’s Office was alerted to the growing homeless camp off Mission Drive in Fernley near the Veterans Cemetery. The camp was leaving large amounts of garbage on the property and reportedly involved in numerous other crimes. The Sheriff’s Office contacted the Bureau of Land Management, who was previously the responsible agency for the property, to initiate a “clean-up” of that property. BLM informed the Sheriff’s Office that the property was no longer under their control and belonged to the Bureau of Reclamation.
Through those conversations, we learned there was no enforcement agent in the area to regulate the property on the Bureau of Reclamation’s behalf. Fernley City Councilman Albert Torres began working on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the City of Fernley and the Bureau of Reclamation in an attempt to gain authority over the property to conduct appropriate removals of the persons residing on the property.
While the MOU was being worked on, the Sheriff’s Office put together an inmate work crew, who were deployed to the area to assist with garbage pickup in the area. Councilman Torres worked with Congressman Amodei’s office to set a meeting with the Bureau of Reclamation to determine the MOU’s details. This meeting is taking place on January 28th.
The Sheriff’s Office has a plan in place to begin working with the people on the property to get them appropriate resources and move them to an area that can sustain their lifestyles. We will accomplish this with mental health resources and other regional social services. Ultimately, if these means do not obtain compliance, criminal legal action may be taken, up to and including arrest. This plan will be launched shortly after an agreement is reached for authority to conduct these actions. We will provide updates as this process unfolds.
In the meantime, we are working on several other encampments throughout the northern part of the county. Chief Deputy Brantingham and I spent Thursday patrolling these areas, contacting people in the area, and providing education in an attempt to get them moved to more suitable living areas and resources. Several small encampments were contacted, and the occupants were receptive to the conversation about moving to lawful areas.
During these patrols, the Chief Deputy and I contacted the occupants near the veteran’s cemetery. Several encampments were observed packing property, loading vehicles, and moving out of the area as the day progressed. The goal of these patrols was education and to attempt to prevent the people contacted from simply moving from one problem area to another.
We have received recent questions about arrests for other criminal activity stemming from the camps. The Sheriff’s Office has made several arrests regarding criminal activity from these camps. Unfortunately, with the current bail reform structure put in place by the legislature, the arrestees were ordered to be released several hours later, at which point they were free to return to the camps. This cycle is a large part of the reason gaining compliance in moving the people to resources is key to cleaning these encampments up and removing the issues from our communities.
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