Candidate for
Sheriff/Coroner/Public Administrator; County of Monterey

As the Sheriff's department moves ahead into the twenty-first century we must recognize that the culture that presently embraces our organizational behavior has to be changed if we are to make true lasting meaningful changes. This means establishing a new way of thinking from the top down with respect to professionalism and leadership. There has to be an end to political appointments based on cronyism and back door deals. All promotions and assignments must be handled with equity and fairness. The rules have to be clearly established and we have to stick to those rules whether we like the outcome or not. We must not arbitrarily change rules to fit the situation. Communication needs to be improved and all employees have to know what is expected of them. We must improve morale because a motivated work force will provide better service to our customers, the public. We must re-examine the way we do business and look at innovative new ideas like POST accreditation and performance Based Budgeting

Recruitment and Retention

If we are to stay competitive in the job market, we must be prepared to pay the price for the best applicants. Monterey County, much like the rest of the state, is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit quality law enforcement personnel. The alternatives are lowering our hiring standards, working understaffed, or increasing wages and benefits to attract new applicants. Contributing to the problem is a rapidly increasing cost of living index being driven by an acute housing shortage. We can expect difficult times ahead as we try and compete with other agencies for top candidates.

Adding to the problem is the fact that law enforcement has suffered in the public perception due to such incidents as the Rodney King assault, the Rampart Scandal, Waco, and Ruby Ridge. With newly emerging issues, such as civilian review boards and racial profiling, public trust is reaching an all time low as we try to restore public confidence in our profession. The end result is that fewer are interested in becoming police officers or Sheriff's deputies. With a diminished candidate pool we have a tremendous challenge ahead of us if we are to recruit and retain qualified people without lowering our hiring standards. Our competition remains every department in the state and country including federal agencies.

In light of these growing obstacles what can we do to recruit the best people? The simple answer is money. The agencies that have affordable housing within 25 miles of the work place will be the agencies that attract and retain quality employees. We need to recognize this. While the cost of housing has now reached epic proportions in our county we need to take steps to deal with this issue. At the same time we can't afford to overlook other changes, such as streamlining our hiring and selection process. As a practical matter it takes too long and we are loosing to many qualified candidates to other departments, because we can't keep a steady and rapid pace in the background phase. None of this is good news because our population will continue to grow along with an increased demand for public safety services. Unless we have the best trained, best equipped, and best paid law enforcement agency on the central coast we will always be a second rate operation attracting second rate applicants. In order to stay competitive some of the issues we will need to address include:

Priorities Setting priorities and establishing a clear concise vision statement is essential in order to figure out where we are heading. Our priorities should include concentrating in these areas:

• Drugs
• Gangs
• Preventing School Violence
• Jail Overpopulation
• Domestic Terrorism
• High Tech Crimes
• Rural Crimes
• Environmental Crimes
• Hate Crimes
• Technology

DRUGS

This department must develop a workable drug enforcement strategy to keep pace with the fast flow of narcotics in the county while keeping in tune with state and federal efforts. Increasingly our involvement and suppression efforts will be within the cities. We must be prepared to simultaneously enhance local police efforts while managing larger scale countywide operations. To this end we must commit to adding additional personnel to this unit as quickly as possible if we are to keep pace with the proliferation of narcotics into the county.

The size of the narcotics unit needs to be doubled to stay ahead of the problem and that should be the goal. Planned and balanced growth is the way to do it. This agency must lead the way by continuing to promote regional task forcing as the most effective way to combat drug crimes given current limitations. Enhanced cooperation and joint operations with state and local agencies must continue.

GANGS

Gangs will continue to be a problem for Law Enforcement. Presently we do not have an anti-gang unit. The team that was originally assigned to gang suppression was disbanded and absorbed into the narcotics division and subsequently resurrected as a special enforcement unit with only two deputies assigned. Presently we have no anti-gang unit. Without a dedicated anti-gang suppression unit we have no tool to deal with gang issues nor do we have the capability or means to assist cities requesting help in this area.

According to the 1999 Telus/Diganos report there were an estimated 3300 gang members countywide. By July 2002 conservative estimates are in the neighborhood of approximately 5,000 gang members.

With population trends continuing to rise we can only expect that these figures will continue to rise. There must be a renewed commitment to deal with this important public safety issue. I am proposing an anti-gang unit of eighteen deputies and two sergeants that will take back the overlooked task of gang suppression. Such a unit, organized similar to the Salinas Police model, would serve as a full time Violent Crimes Unit (VCU) and SWAT Team capable of responding 24 hours a day seven days a week. The unit would take on the task of supporting countywide municipal suppression efforts while employing bold new strategies such as intensified sweeps, injunctions, and gang association warrants. Furthermore, the department must renew its commitment to the Cal-Gang data base network which has inexplicably been abandoned despite San Jose Police department's offer to maintain it and provide free training and support.

School Violence

We do not want the next school shooting to be here in Monterey County. But if a Columbine situation occurs, it is essential that we are prepared and ready. We need to act now before it happens. This is what we need to do:

• The Sheriff's department needs to take the lead in working with all the school districts through the Monterey County Office of Education and Office of Emergency Services to come up with a strategy that ensures each school has a safety plan in place, as required by law, and that teachers, staff, parents and students know their roles in times of crisis.

• We must train teachers and staff on what to do in case of an emergency

• We must train emergency first responders on their roles in the event of a critical incident response.

• We need to establish easy access to school safety plans for law enforcement either on CD ROM or via the internet

• We must educate parents on what to do if a crisis occurs at their school.

• We must form a partnership with MCOE (Monterey County Office of Education), CSUMB, Hartnell, MPC, OES (Office of Emergency Services), Law Enforcement, Fire, and Emergency Medical Services to formulate a Combine Incident Response plan that will be the basis for responding to critical incidents on school campuses. Presently I am working with OES and Fire as part of a Combined Public Safety Unified task Force to formulate such a plan.

• We must routinely audit school safety plans to ensure they are up to date and current in compliance with state law.

• We must educate and train teachers and staff to recognize anti-social behavior and markers that identify potentially troubled youths. Counseling should be provided to students with behavior problems and they should be referred to the Sheriff's Department Juvenile Impact program specifically designed to address this type of anti-social behavior.

• Schools must adopt a zero tolerance approach to violent behavior or threat of violence and expel students that harm threaten to harm other students or staff.

• Timely reports must be submitted to law enforcement when an incident occurs.

• There should be an annual conference on preventing school violence each year within Monterey County. The Sheriff's Department should take the lead organizing this event.

As we continue to deal with an ever-increasing population base we must be prepared to expect overcrowding in the jail. Not only is this an unhealthy situation but a potentially explosive one for both inmates and staff. Our jail facility is dangerously undermanned. As conditions worsen we should expect overcrowding to cause increased incidents of violence. Already we are experiencing sporadic gang violence within the confines of the facility due to overcrowding. Complicating the problem is a lack of space needed to segregate criminal elements at war with each other making it extremely unsafe for both inmates and staff. Since Salinas is still the headquarters for the Nuestra Familia there is every reason to expect that the NF will continue to be a driving and dominating force within our jail population. I propose to build two additional housing units are not just a nice thing to have they are absolutely necessary. Furthermore, if we do not plan for overcrowding now we could face court ordered releases as conditions worsen. This could become a potentially dangerous public safety issue. The deplorable conditions that exist today are a direct result of a lack of commitment and planning.

TERRORISM

The Salinas Valley is rich with its agricultural base and ripe as a potential terrorist target. The salad bowl of the country could easily become contaminated by terrorists bent on poisoning our food through chemical or biological means. Similarly, the Monterey Peninsula with its popular special events, tourist attractions, and recreational facilities is now a world class destination which could easily draw a terrorist attack. Law Enforcement feels that it is not of matter of "if" but rather "when" the next major terrorist attack will hit the Continental United States. The good news is the department has been approved for limited funding through a federal grant which would provide our personnel and Hazardous Materials teams in Monterey County with the equipment and training for responding to chemical, biological or nuclear threats. However funding is limited and sporadic. The grant was also the genesis for a vulnerability assessment of potential terrorist targets within Monterey County that has been recently completed by myself and two other commanders. Presently, this agency along with the Monterey county Office of Emergency Services has formed a tri-county task force, comprised of Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey Counties with the mission of identifying resources and planning responses to acts of terrorism and other disasters. Internally, we need to establish a Domestic Terrorism unit to gather intelligence, monitor threat levels, and coordinate responses.

High Tech Crimes

Identity theft, cyber fraud, Techno terrorism, child pornography, stalking, white-collar crimes, and contraband trafficking are some of the potential threats posed to our citizens today. Currently we are not prepared to seriously deal with complicated Internet crimes on a large scale.

Techno terrorism seeks us out in our homes, tapping its way into our bank accounts and spreading its tentacles throughout the basic infrastructures of our society. Out of necessity we must gear up now and prepare for the next wave of crime which threatens our society.

We must establish a dedicated unit to Techno/Cyber crimes with clear goal and objectives. Grant money is available to fund such a unit but this department has not pursued it. Such a unit will gather intelligence on known offenders; locate individual suspects; verify known information; develop contacts and leads; establish real-world meetings with suspects; set up cyber sting operations; locate missing persons; and interact with other law enforcement agencies around the world. We need to create a High Tech crimes unit.

RURAL CRIMES

Presently we have minimal staffing assigned to rural crimes. When major crimes affecting agriculture occur investigators are assigned the case the same as any other major crime. This is not acceptable.

Agriculture accounts for a $2.85 billion dollar industry in Monterey County. The Salinas Valley, ripe with its agricultural, farming, and ranching base, represents a major economic force vital to the County's interests. While the department is taking steps to plan for a future unit we presently do not have one. We cannot afford to wait for a grant to come along, rather we must plan now to expand into this area.

In neighboring counties, such as Kern and Fresno, established dedicated Rural Crime units exist. Such a unit could devote time to developing an on-line interactive system for farmers and ranchers as well as a dedicated database to track rural crimes. This unit would also be responsible for intensified investigations through stakeouts and statewide networking.

The Sheriff's Department must take the offensive in preparing for and dealing with crimes such as chemical thefts, vandalism, trespassing, dumping, and rustling. We must take the lead in organizing other agencies within a workable structure to collaboratively create a true rural crime task force. The heart of such a task force would be our own rural crimes unit.

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES

Monterey County with its pristine coastline is home to the Monterey Bay Sanctuary, a federal preserve. We must strive to protect our environment from those who would pollute it with toxic wastes. We already have a dangerous situation with the illegal dumping of methamphetamine chemical waste. The proliferation of these dangerous labs poses a danger to the public and the environment. Yet this is only one aspect of what we need to be prepared for. We must be vigilant and guard against those that would pollute our environment either intentionally or by accident. We need to investigate, prosecute, and patrol sensitive vulnerable areas as well as educate the public to be on guard and vigilant. We need to make environmental crimes a priority. The department is a member of an Environmental Task Force made up of various county agencies tasked with going after violations of building, zoning and planning laws. However, this task force has been sporadically successful because it lacks the teeth to do the job. Department heads need to give this task force the authority and mandate to act. The Sheriff's department will take the lead but we need the commitment from other agencies to help make it work.

HATE CRIMES

Hate and race related crimes clearly pose a great concern to law enforcement today. Here in Monterey County with an ever-growing Latino population we have the potential for increased violence perpetrated along racial lines. This department needs to take the lead in prioritizing hate and race related crimes working in partnership with the community and FBI.

The message needs to get out that we are tough on those who perpetrate hate and race crimes. That we will thoroughly investigate hate crimes and strongly recommend maximum prosecution with those cases we refer for filing to the District Attorney. Indeed, we must work beyond hate crimes to look at violations of federal law and refer those directly to the federal civil rights section of the FBI.

Technology

As the Internet revolution continues the department is faced with catching up to meet public needs. Different from investigating Techno/Cyber crimes, technology is an important component of the department's ability to interact with the public and other agencies. Not only must our web site be constantly updated and professionally maintained but also we must modernize it to become interactive with the public. In addition to what we currently support citizens should be able to report anonymous information, make police reports, inquire on the status of their cases, and communicate with their investigating deputy. Furthermore, our service should be in English and Spanish. Grant monies are available for these needs. We must pursue this funding and apply it to upgrading our department technology.