Week in Review: Bay Area Suspects Among 245 Arrested for Child Porn; San Leandro Wants Less Crime

Here’s a brief look at the three most-read stories on San Leandro Patch this week:

Bay Area Suspects Among 245 Arrested For Child Porn

Suspects from San Jose, San Francisco and Sonoma County were among 245 individuals arrested by federal agents in a five-week sweep of alleged producers, traders and owners of child pornography. The arrests were made between Nov. 1 and Dec. 7 and announced Thursday by federal agents. Officials identified 123 victims of child sexual exploitation in what has been dubbed “Operation Sunflower.”

Of those victims, five were under the age of 3; nine were ages 4 to 6; 21 were ages 7 to 9; 11 were ages 10 to 12; 38 were ages 13 to 15; and 15 were ages 16 to 17. There were also 24 victims identified that are now adults who were victimized as children. Learn more about the operation here.

San Leandro Wants Less Crime in 2013

What do San Leandro residents want in 2013? When Patch posed this question on its Facebook page, the most consistent wish was some variation of less crime. Granting that wish may depend on what happens with Oakland's effort to quell its own crime wave by hiring a $125,000 consultant — former New York and Los Angeles police chief William J. Bratton.

Reduced crime in Oakland, could mean reduced crime for San Leandro. According to a recent analysis of one year of arrests by San Leandro Police, Oakland residents accounted for almost a third of all the arrests made in San Leandro. That compared to just under 38 percent of arrestees who came from San Leandro.

San Leandro Police Arrest Pair For Video Heist

Two men were arrested early last Sunday for allegedly breaking into a commercial van at 14266 Doolittle Drive to steal video equipment, police say. Police say that suspects Christopher Miller, 37, of Union City, and Brian Belger, 34, of Alameda, were caught removing video equipment from the van, whose window had been smashed in.