Operation Dust Devil has officially wrapped up, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office.
The operation started back in mid December of 2022, with the goal of encouraging safe and responsible off-highway vehicle operations as well as reducing the amount of reported illegal off-roading in San Bernardino county – specifically rural areas such as the hi desert.
Sheriff’s deputies worked with park and forest services along with police departments all throughout the over 20 thousand square miles of San Bernardino county, running patrols over some of the busiest weekends for off-roading this winter, specifically the King of the Hammers event which took place over the first week of February.
The Operation had a planned end date of March 10th, based on the funding received from the county board of supervisors.
Sgt. Kevin Arlotti from the Barstow station says that illegal activity in Morongo Basin was spread pretty evenly amongst the area and that other areas in the county accounted for more illegal activity. Overall he says the operation was a success, with a noticeable increase in visitors to legal OHV areas along with the proper usage of safety equipment.
Overall there were over 14,000 contacts, 300 citations, 10 arrests, 30 towed vehicles and 3 search n rescue calls during the operation. Arlotti notes that. Most contact was educational and used to provide information on legal OHV areas and responsible OHV operation.
Now that the patrols that were being specifically run under Operation Dust Devil have wrapped up, that doesn’t mean that off-roading laws in residential areas won’t be enforced. The phone number and email used to report nuisance offroad activities are still valid and being monitored – and information will continue to be issued to the proper stations in order to deal with any ongoing OHV issues.
Sgt. Arlotti says that the Operation resulted in the Sheriff’s Department attempting a more focused approach that will respond to problem areas based on those citizen reports and emails.
If you need to report illegal or nuisance off-roading, you can email your report to [email protected] or call (760) 366-4175.
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