Board to Consider Formation of Committee to Assess Sheriff's Ops

RIVERSIDE (CNS) - A year after a similar proposal was shot down, the
Board of Supervisors today will reconsider whether to form a committee to
assess possible measures to improve oversight of the Riverside County Sheriff's
Department and improve the agency's overall operations going forward.
  

``This process is intended to support informed decision-making,
strengthen public confidence in county government and public safety and ensure
that any future actions are tailored to Riverside County's unique operational
needs,'' according to a joint statement by Supervisors Jose Medina and Karen
Spiegel posted to the board's agenda for Tuesday.
  

The two are requesting full board support for the establishment of an
ad-hoc committee intended to spend about six months evaluating how best to
increase scrutiny of sheriff's operations, and what might be done to make the
agency better, ethically and professionally.
  

``The board has previously considered whether additional advisory or
oversight mechanisms should be evaluated or established, but those discussions
did not result in formal board action,'' the supervisors stated. ``Since that
time, circumstances have continued to evolve.''
  

Last July, Medina proposed the establishment of a committee with
essentially the same intention of this latest proposal.
  

``Given everything that has transpired in the last few years, with the
number of lawsuits, indicates that we need a committee,'' he told his
colleagues, none of whom would support his proposal, last summer.
  

Sheriff Chad Bianco, then running for governor, was rankled by the
prospect of a committee to weigh whether a full-time watchdog was needed for
the agency.
  

Bianco dismissed the proposal as ``divisive partisan politics.''

``We're here because of a lie,'' the sheriff said. ``I will not say
our agency is perfect, but we're striving to be the best.''
  

A number of pro-committee speakers at the time pointed to the dozens
of in-custody deaths -- an exact figure was elusive -- that have occurred in
the last six or more years throughout the county correctional system, insisting
that negligence, poor training and other deficiencies in the sheriff's
department were to blame.

The Riverside Sheriffs' Association, which endorsed all of the
supervisors except Medina in their election or reelection bids over the last
seven years, had more than one representative on hand during the prior meeting
on a committee and will likely be present Tuesday.
  

Medina noted in his proposal last year that Los Angeles, Orange,
Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara and  Sonoma counties had all
moved forward with establishing oversight committees, but it wasn't clear how
much additional financial burden that had placed on the jurisdictions.
  

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department regularly leads among county
agencies in the number of lawsuits filed annually naming the department as
a defendant. The suits often stem from deputy-involved shootings.
  

In 2014, then-Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, disturbed by the millions of
dollars in liability claims the county was having to settle every year,
proposed making agencies responsible for paying their own settlements out of
their individual budgets. The sheriff's department was the principal opponent
of the concept, which didn't garner support.
  

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