Jenny Kane

jkane@rgj.com

The Pershing County Sheriff's Office arrested about four dozen people at Burning Man this year, most of them busted with drugs or paraphernalia.

The sheriff's office released a list of the 46 arrests about two weeks after the exodus from Burning Man's temporary city, a 70,000-person camp-out in the middle of Northern Nevada's Black Rock Desert that revolves around large-scale art installations and 24-hour libations. Of the arrests, 37 were drug-related. The most common drug found at Burning Man this year was marijuana, followed by cocaine, ecstasy and acid, according to Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen.

More than two thirds of those arrested were Californians, unsurprising since they make up nearly half of Black Rock City's temporary population. Granted, Burners from as far as Spain, Italy and Mexico also were booked at the on-site jail. A bulk of the charges were for possession or trafficking of drugs.

Deputies also arrested a West Jordan, Utah man charged with second-degree attempted murder and a Venice, Calif. man charged with battery with use of a deadly weapon. Most on-playa crimes were non-violent.

The number of arrests this year reflected a slight uptick from the number last year, 41. On the contrast, arrests rocketed almost sixfold from 2014, when the sheriff's office only arrested seven people total. The difference is attributed to the use of active-duty officers at Burning Man, a new policy last year put into place by Allen, who said that active-duty officers are more pro-active about law enforcement.

Sheriff's deputies had double the workload this year since staffing was down this year, according to Allen, who noted prior to this year's event that he also felt last year that the sheriff's office could have used more personnel.

The sheriff's office oversees the event's law enforcement along with officials from the Bureau of Land Management, which issues an annual multi-million dollar permit for the event. BLM agents handle federal violations, including traffic citations since the event is on public land, and the sheriff's office handles person-on-person as well as smaller scale drug crimes.

Law enforcement officials had little to say about several publicized incidents at the event this year, including the vandalism of the White Ocean theme camp. The camp, which hosts A-list electronic dance music DJs nightly at its stage, denounced the actions of those who flooded the camp, cut electric cords and glued doors shut on some of the camp's RVs.

Without an official report, which the camp leads never made, Allen could not investigate the criminal ransacking.

"It is important to remember that there must be a victim or an outcry from someone for us to initiate an investigation into possible criminal activity, otherwise it would be considered an unlawful or unconstitutional intrusion by an agent of the government," Allen said.

Neither the sheriffs nor the BLM had anything to say about the three-hour shutdown of the only road out of Black Rock City when a 17-year-old girl went missing during exodus. Exodus is the peak exit period of Burners at the end of the week of Burning Man. Officials located the girl safe within the city perimeter.

The BLM made no arrests last year and has not shared whether any arrests were made this year, though it issued a statement on general operations this year.

"During the 2016 Burning Man event, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) worked successfully with Black Rock City (BRC) and cooperating agencies such as the Pershing and Washoe County Sheriff's Offices, Federal Aviation Administration, Nevada Highway Patrol, and many others to protect the health and safety of the public, as well as the natural and cultural resources of the Black Rock Desert," BLM spokesman Rudy Evenson stated in an email.

Neither Pershing County Sheriff's Office nor BLM officials released staffing numbers for Burning Man 2016, although Allen said in a previous interview that he aimed to have approximately 30 officers working at one time. Past BLM reports have reported conflicting numbers when it comes to the number of BLM agents working during Burning Man.

The Burning Man organization, which currently is embroiled in a lawsuit with the BLM over permit costs and law enforcement behavior during the 2015 ecvent, withheld comment about law enforcement during the 2016 event.