LOCAL
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2019
Porch pirates cashing in on the digital era
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
Americans spent $126 bil-
lion dollars online shopping
between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31,
2018, and according to the
research fi rm Adobe Ana-
lytics, that number is going
to be higher after this year’s
holiday season.
That’s part of what can
make winter months a prime
season for “porch pirates,” or
people who steal packages
from other people’s prop-
erty, according to Pendleton
Police Chief Stuart Roberts.
“This is a crime of oppor-
tunity, we have people driv-
ing around looking for pack-
ages,” he said. “They’ll
knock on the door and if no
one’s home, they’ll take the
package.”
He said he’s even known
of cases where a thief dresses
up as a serviceperson, like
a pizza delivery driver, to
make sneaking onto proper-
ties seem less suspicious.
Statistically
speaking,
it’s diffi cult to count pre-
cisely how many package
thefts happen in any given
area, because they are usu-
ally reported as larceny — or
personal property — thefts.
Larceny also encapsulates
shoplifting, car stealing, bike
theft and anything snatched
from someone’s home.
A recent report from
Security.org states for every
100,000 people in Oregon,
there were almost 2,150 lar-
ceny thefts in 2017.
Both the Pendleton and
Hermiston police depart-
ments recommend having
personal packages sent to
work. Roberts advocates for
well-lit front porches, mail-
box locks and secured front
doors. But in a digital age,
there’s a relatively new tool
for fi ghting against crime
that happens on personal
property: doorbell cameras.
Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston, who noted
the number of neighborhood
watch groups has decreased
signifi cantly in the last 15
years, is a fan.
“A lot of people don’t
know this, but a confession
of a crime is not enough.
We have to have additional
evidence to help,” he said.
“(Doorbell cameras) offer
instantaneous high- quality
information.”
Amazon’s line of doorbell
cameras, Ring, has made a
splash in the news this year.
According to The Washing-
ton Post, the company has
formed a relationship with
over 400 police departments
nationwide.
The Oregonian reported
the Beaverton Police Depart-
ment entered a contract with
Ring in May and gained
access to a modifi ed version
of the accompanying Neigh-
bors app, which they could
use to post crime updates
and also request video foot-
age from app users for area
crimes.
Edmiston said the Herm-
iston Police Department
won’t be endorsing any spe-
cifi c camera companies any-
time soon. But he’s attended
a promotional Ring event at
a police chief conference in
the past.
He said part of the rea-
son the Hermiston Police
Department hasn’t entered
any such agreement has do
with splash-back that the
Beaverton Police received
for theirs.
Civil liberties organiza-
tions, including the Amer-
ican Civil Liberties Union,
as well as privacy advo-
cates have expressed con-
cerns about how increased
surveillance could pit neigh-
bors against one another,
feed on personal bias or vio-
late privacy.
Roberts noted privacy
issues could arise if someone
chooses to tilt their doorbell
camera toward the public
street, and not on their prop-
erty, but that on an individ-
ual’s property, the footage
can be a powerful tool for a
smaller community.
“It does have signifi -
cant evidentiary value,” said
Roberts. “Working in small
communities, we know most
of our criminal population.”
Both police chiefs said to
obtain Ring footage, they’ll
contact an address or that
homeowners will turnover
the footage willingly after
witnessing a theft or crime
on their camera.
Roberts said otherwise,
they’ll have to obtain foot-
age through a search warrant
or other legal means.
Destiny George, a Herm-
iston realtor, said she uses
Ring and the Neighbors app
and fi nds that both keep her
feeling in the loop about
local crime.
“I have two little children
and am always on alert,” she
stated during a conversa-
tion on Facebook. “We hear
of more and more crime in
our area, especially during
the holidays. I shop online a
lot, so I like to protect what I
purchase.”
She said she’s had zero
instances of uninvited guests,
but that if she did, she’d post
that footage online and turn
it over to the police.
Temperature increases mean fi ner wines for Eastern Oregon
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
The Columbia Valley
region is nestled between
Bordeaux, France, and Napa
Valley, California, accord-
ing to Kevin Pogue, profes-
sor of geology at Whitman
College and grape farmer
consultant.
Not actually, but in terms
of grape growing and wine
production. And according
to Pogue, just a 2-degree
temperature increase could
have the Columbia Val-
ley wine region in Oregon
and Washington producing
the same quality of Caber-
net Sauvignon that put Napa
Valley on the map.
Not to say that Califor-
nia’s famous wine country
will stop producing wines
altogether.
“Farmers are not dumb,”
Pogue said. “They will
adjust, and grape growers
will adjust.”
And they have. In Cali-
fornia, some wineries have
equipment that “de-alcohol-
izes” wine from grapes that
have soaked up too much
sun and produced lots of
alcohol-forming
sugars.
Some wineries add water or
acidify their wines to cope
with the effects of a chang-
ing climate as well.
Pogue spoke recently
during a fundraiser for the
Eastern Oregon Climate
Change Coalition, where he
shared research about the
future of Eastern Oregon
and Washington wines in the
face of climate change.
And, while according to a
study published in 2016 by
the European Geosciences
Union, a global temperature
increase of just 2 degrees
could mean less fresh water;
the destruction of coral reefs
and the lengthening of heat-
waves; it could also mean
an increase in the amount of
wine produced in the area,
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Dr. Kevin Pogue, a professor in the Geology Department at
Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., speaks about the
eff ects of climate change on wine during an event at Blue
Mountain Community College in Pendleton on Nov. 6.
and at other more high-el-
evation locations like Spo-
kane, Washington.
“A little bit of global
warming, and you’re going
to have a viticulture zone
right here in (Pendleton),”
Pogue joked.
In
Milton-Freewater,
he said, orchards are being
replaced with vines, which
take less water to produce.
So what’s making the
area so great for growing
grapes? The Columbia Val-
ley region, which has an
area of 11 million acres in
Washington and part of Ore-
gon, has a 10-month, frost-
free growing season, which
accommodates more grape
varieties than a short sea-
son would. According to
the Oregon Wine Board, hot
days and cool nights ensure
grapes preserve their acidity.
Watermill Winery in Mil-
ton-Freewater takes advan-
tage of the extended grow-
ing season to produce grapes
for Syrah and Cabernet
wines.
“We have a nice long
growing season,” said Leon-
ard Brown, the vineyard
manager at Watermill Win-
eries in Milton-Freewa-
ter. “We get the ample heat
we need for ripening, we
also have some good soils
around here, adaptable for
wine grapes. Probably the
worst thing we have here is
our cold winters.”
And those cold win-
ter temperatures started
early this year, according to
Brown. Last month was the
coldest October on record
since 1905, which can be
devastating for some grapes.
“Grapes can’t tolerate
cold temperatures,” Brown
said.
But as for increasing
temperatures, Brown hasn’t
noticed much of a differ-
ence. In some vineyards, he
said, they’ve laid down sod
to cool off the soil.
“It hasn’t concerned
us,” he said. “As far as cli-
mate change goes, it’s defi -
nitely warming up. But it’s
also more drastic weather
extremes and storms.”
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