A few days ago we posted about a Sacramento Bee article that characterized Arden Arcade as a Sacramento neighborhood, implying our rather large community is just another 'hood within the City of Sacramento. The author of that story said she was new to the area and promised to correct the misleading statement. We are grateful for her quick and gracious response. 

Still, whether showing disrespect of our community or just not knowing about it, the Bee's failures towards the unincorporated area remain. A new reporter from out of state can certainly be excused for not knowing all the nuances of our local geography. But her editors cannot. Just today we saw a Bee story by Ishani Desai entitled "Sacramento County Sheriff's Office conducted operation to stem prostitution on Watt Avenue". The article described a sting operation by Sheriff's Deputies on Watt Avenue in North Highlands that resulted in arrests of 53 johns and a sex worker being rescued. Good! Hip-hip hooray for that! The article also included a photo (below) of one of the suspects being escorted into what sure looks like the Sheriff's North Area facility on Orange Grove Ave. in Foothill Farms.

The photo's caption in the article said, "Sacramento Sheriff's deputy Eilers escorts a man arested for propositioning deputy posing as prostitute on Watt Avenue in Sacramento on Friday." Well, there they go again...

• Watt Avenue in North Highlands is NOT in Sacramento, it is in unincorporated Sacramento County. If the caption was about "Watt Avenue in Sacramento", that's wrong.
• The Sheriff's facility in the photo is NOT in Sacramento, it is in unincorporated Sacramento County. If the caption was about the place where the suspect was taken ("...in Sacramento..."), that's wrong.

But, really, shouldn't it have been obvious to the Bee's editors that the story was about law enforcement activity in the unincorporated area by the SHERIFF? Not by city POLICE? The Sheriff is responsible for municipal law enforcement in the vast, urbanized, unincorporated UnCity of Sacramento County. Cities within the county are responsible for their own municipal law enforcement. They have their own police departments, that sometimes contract with the Sheriff for services but don't have to. In other words, it's a pretty big clue that a sting by Sheriff's Deputies is an operation by the Sheriff, the law enforcement guy for the unincorporated area. In fact, the article even states that the Sheriff's Office ran the operation. Despite that, the editors found a way to make it look like the City of Sacramento gets credit for dealing with the sex crimes. The Bee could have reported that sex crimes have been a big problem in the UnCity (example) and the Sheriff finally did something about it. But no. Again, we know this seems like a small thing, but it just contributes to the ongoing invisibility of unincorporated communities. {...sigh...} Thanks for nothing, Sacramento Bee editors.