5j) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding the Operation, Staffing, and Fiscal Plan for Additional Ten (10) Deputies to the Sheriff's Operations to Address Organized Crime and Illegal Marijuana Grows in Mendocino County
(Sponsor: Sheriff-Coroner)
I am appalled by the racist photo used on the Sheriff department's website. It appears designed to illicit fear, using a Black male as the perpetrator, even though that population is very minimal in this county. I am against funding of more officers. The statistics show minimal increases in few categories, and criminal decreases in others. The priority should be cultural training and increased sensitivity to diverse populations, and hiring of mental health professionals to decrease many of the issues officers are currently required to address.
I strongly oppose the Sheriffs request for 10 additional officers.
Firstly, which should go without saying, the choice of photo is highly disturbing. It illustrates the need for reeducating the sheriffs department; not additional funding to continue serving under the cultural biases that are so obviously held.
Secondly, the Sheriffs presentation showed that, in most categories, crimes have decreased. This does not support his argument that additional officers are needed. Rather, it opens the door to discussion about why those numbers have apparently gone down.
Hiring additional officers under the current culture and structure of the Sheriffs Dept. would only serve to maintain the status quo. With this new year, let us explore and invest in restorative, educational methods that address the cause of crime in the first place. Let's move away from punitive methods that have been shown to be ineffective and destructive. I would like to see $4,000,000 invested in training for the police force (i.e. crisis de-escalation training, creating a resource database which officers can refer to, etc.) and direct support for our disadvantaged neighbors (i.e. expanding mental health services, shelters for those experiencing homelessness, drug and alcohol counseling, etc.)
Thank you for your time,
Jessica Yates( she/her, Mother, Volunteer, Teacher)
4th District
I am strongly against adding 10 additional deputies to the Sheriff's operations. What we need is to add 10 additional mental health professionals to Health and Human Resources. If that occurs, the Sheriff deputies will be relieved of much work and will then have the time to deal with organized crime and illegal cannabis grows.
I feel as many that additional officers, especially 10, without addressing the causes of “crimes” that others here have articulated much better than I.
We do not need more policing of pos crops. We need that finding to go to mental health, substance abuse, homelessness so that the sheriff's department can focus on what they are meant to be focussing on. It is obscene you use the ONLY image of a Black person arrested rather than the PLETHORA of images of white arrests. This is exactly how and where racial profiling originates. This image is disturbing because of the inhumanity of a man being hog tied. It looks like the deep south. Regardless of who that man is or what he did, this image sends a message out that more sheriffs are needed to deal with white fear of Black people and their "Imminent Threat". It is explicitly racist.You can do better and the people you serve demand you do better.
I'm not asking to defund the police, just not to give them more deputies. Budget for more community service and mental health staff. I had a dispute with neighbors who were fighting very loudly and caused us to be frightened. I called the sheriff to ask it they can provide intervention or mediation as I didn't want to alienate the neighbors by just asking police to come. The sheriff department said they didn't have that service. Use the money to provide that kind of intervention rather than deputies who don't have a lot of tools in their bag that don't do real harm to people.
Is crime so high in our county that we need 10 deputies? That we need ANY NEW deputies? Surely the county can find a better use for the money.
Lynda McClure, District 5
I am writing to oppose the proposal for additional personnel for the sheriff’s department. I have reviewed the report and slide show submitted by Sheriff Kendall, and while I can appreciate that crime has increased, I would propose a different plan to meet this increased need for responders.
First, I would like to address the choice of photo in the last slide of Sheriff Kendall’s report. I have read a comment by Ted Williams that said that the choice cannot be understood without the context of spoken content. I am an open-minded and creative individual, but cannot imagine any possible way the choice of photo depicting a hog-tied Black man, in a county where only 1.5% of the population is Black, could be considered acceptable.
The choice is, at best, terribly insensitive, demonstrating a lack of basic understanding of implicit bias based on race. At worst, this choice is racist and inflammatory. Even if the comments regarding the last slide tell a tale of vigilante “justice” gone wrong (as the comments by Ted Williams seem to have implied), the image is supplied here without context, where it will remain a matter of public record unless corrected. Were I working for the sheriff’s department, I would think the only responsible course of action would be a retraction of the image from the report and a public apology.
As to the proposal to hire four additional law enforcement personnel in an era of “Defund the Police” initiatives, why not use this problem as an opportunity to set an example for other rural Northern California counties? Basic Defund the Police theory posits that law enforcement is overworked and insufficiently trained to effectively deal with many of the other crimes listed in Sheriff Kendall’s report: domestic violence, child abuse, mental health calls, public disturbances/intoxication, etc. In many cases, law enforcement officials have no services to refer people to in order to prevent these types of calls from reoccurring.
I would propose this funding go to any of the myriad services which would reduce these types of crime, in order to free up law enforcement personnel to deal with increased organized crime and/or violent crime related to marijuana cultivation.
There are so many ways to spend this money more effectively, and in a way that would support our county’s families who are in crisis: hire appropriately trained social service personnel who could respond to calls for domestic or public disturbances, mental health counselors for the houseless, increased childcare options and/or respite services for families with developmentally disabled or mentally ill children...the list goes on and on.
These are not new ideas, but they have been gaining popularity. Mendocino County has enough educated, intelligent and devoted individuals to start some effective social services systems change; what we are lacking is funding.
If the BOS decides to grant this funding without exploring preventative measures, crime will only continue to increase. Look upriver: what is causing the bulk of crimes related to domestic violence, child abuse, and mental health crises? A lack of affordable housing, mental health services, transition programs, childcare, and respite care. As a teacher and education administrator in Mendocino County for the last 12 years, I have seen the struggles of our families from the lowest socioeconomic brackets firsthand. The Era of Covid has likely pushed some individuals over the edge.
Please be forward-thinking in your approach; the wellness of Mendocino County residents, and especially our county’s children and families, depends on it.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment.
- I strongly oppose this unsubstantiated request.
- Any funds that can be diverted should be going to prevention and supportive services with those that are trained n de-escalation.
- The sheriff cannot be entrusted in a leadership role and entrusted with the safety and lives of people under his care. Funds could be devoted to a deep investigation on how the jail outbreak was allowed to happen and allowed to grow unchecked (which puts every person in the county at risk for unavailable ICU beds).
- The department has also refused to release data about types of calls for service responded to which could provide more evidence that the county can be better served with social services rather than more armed LE responding to most calls.
- The submission by the sheriff of dehumanizing racist imagery regardless of long and pointless rationale should be summarily removed from all public documents. This type of amplifying of vigilantism cannot be tolerated - especially from a public "servant".
I am appalled by the racist photo used on the Sheriff department's website. It appears designed to illicit fear, using a Black male as the perpetrator, even though that population is very minimal in this county. I am against funding of more officers. The statistics show minimal increases in few categories, and criminal decreases in others. The priority should be cultural training and increased sensitivity to diverse populations, and hiring of mental health professionals to decrease many of the issues officers are currently required to address.
I strongly oppose the Sheriffs request for 10 additional officers.
Firstly, which should go without saying, the choice of photo is highly disturbing. It illustrates the need for reeducating the sheriffs department; not additional funding to continue serving under the cultural biases that are so obviously held.
Secondly, the Sheriffs presentation showed that, in most categories, crimes have decreased. This does not support his argument that additional officers are needed. Rather, it opens the door to discussion about why those numbers have apparently gone down.
Hiring additional officers under the current culture and structure of the Sheriffs Dept. would only serve to maintain the status quo. With this new year, let us explore and invest in restorative, educational methods that address the cause of crime in the first place. Let's move away from punitive methods that have been shown to be ineffective and destructive. I would like to see $4,000,000 invested in training for the police force (i.e. crisis de-escalation training, creating a resource database which officers can refer to, etc.) and direct support for our disadvantaged neighbors (i.e. expanding mental health services, shelters for those experiencing homelessness, drug and alcohol counseling, etc.)
Thank you for your time,
Jessica Yates( she/her, Mother, Volunteer, Teacher)
4th District
I am strongly against adding 10 additional deputies to the Sheriff's operations. What we need is to add 10 additional mental health professionals to Health and Human Resources. If that occurs, the Sheriff deputies will be relieved of much work and will then have the time to deal with organized crime and illegal cannabis grows.
I feel as many that additional officers, especially 10, without addressing the causes of “crimes” that others here have articulated much better than I.
We do not need more policing of pos crops. We need that finding to go to mental health, substance abuse, homelessness so that the sheriff's department can focus on what they are meant to be focussing on. It is obscene you use the ONLY image of a Black person arrested rather than the PLETHORA of images of white arrests. This is exactly how and where racial profiling originates. This image is disturbing because of the inhumanity of a man being hog tied. It looks like the deep south. Regardless of who that man is or what he did, this image sends a message out that more sheriffs are needed to deal with white fear of Black people and their "Imminent Threat". It is explicitly racist.You can do better and the people you serve demand you do better.
I'm not asking to defund the police, just not to give them more deputies. Budget for more community service and mental health staff. I had a dispute with neighbors who were fighting very loudly and caused us to be frightened. I called the sheriff to ask it they can provide intervention or mediation as I didn't want to alienate the neighbors by just asking police to come. The sheriff department said they didn't have that service. Use the money to provide that kind of intervention rather than deputies who don't have a lot of tools in their bag that don't do real harm to people.
Is crime so high in our county that we need 10 deputies? That we need ANY NEW deputies? Surely the county can find a better use for the money.
Lynda McClure, District 5
I am writing to oppose the proposal for additional personnel for the sheriff’s department. I have reviewed the report and slide show submitted by Sheriff Kendall, and while I can appreciate that crime has increased, I would propose a different plan to meet this increased need for responders.
First, I would like to address the choice of photo in the last slide of Sheriff Kendall’s report. I have read a comment by Ted Williams that said that the choice cannot be understood without the context of spoken content. I am an open-minded and creative individual, but cannot imagine any possible way the choice of photo depicting a hog-tied Black man, in a county where only 1.5% of the population is Black, could be considered acceptable.
The choice is, at best, terribly insensitive, demonstrating a lack of basic understanding of implicit bias based on race. At worst, this choice is racist and inflammatory. Even if the comments regarding the last slide tell a tale of vigilante “justice” gone wrong (as the comments by Ted Williams seem to have implied), the image is supplied here without context, where it will remain a matter of public record unless corrected. Were I working for the sheriff’s department, I would think the only responsible course of action would be a retraction of the image from the report and a public apology.
As to the proposal to hire four additional law enforcement personnel in an era of “Defund the Police” initiatives, why not use this problem as an opportunity to set an example for other rural Northern California counties? Basic Defund the Police theory posits that law enforcement is overworked and insufficiently trained to effectively deal with many of the other crimes listed in Sheriff Kendall’s report: domestic violence, child abuse, mental health calls, public disturbances/intoxication, etc. In many cases, law enforcement officials have no services to refer people to in order to prevent these types of calls from reoccurring.
I would propose this funding go to any of the myriad services which would reduce these types of crime, in order to free up law enforcement personnel to deal with increased organized crime and/or violent crime related to marijuana cultivation.
There are so many ways to spend this money more effectively, and in a way that would support our county’s families who are in crisis: hire appropriately trained social service personnel who could respond to calls for domestic or public disturbances, mental health counselors for the houseless, increased childcare options and/or respite services for families with developmentally disabled or mentally ill children...the list goes on and on.
These are not new ideas, but they have been gaining popularity. Mendocino County has enough educated, intelligent and devoted individuals to start some effective social services systems change; what we are lacking is funding.
If the BOS decides to grant this funding without exploring preventative measures, crime will only continue to increase. Look upriver: what is causing the bulk of crimes related to domestic violence, child abuse, and mental health crises? A lack of affordable housing, mental health services, transition programs, childcare, and respite care. As a teacher and education administrator in Mendocino County for the last 12 years, I have seen the struggles of our families from the lowest socioeconomic brackets firsthand. The Era of Covid has likely pushed some individuals over the edge.
Please be forward-thinking in your approach; the wellness of Mendocino County residents, and especially our county’s children and families, depends on it.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment.
- I strongly oppose this unsubstantiated request.
- Any funds that can be diverted should be going to prevention and supportive services with those that are trained n de-escalation.
- The sheriff cannot be entrusted in a leadership role and entrusted with the safety and lives of people under his care. Funds could be devoted to a deep investigation on how the jail outbreak was allowed to happen and allowed to grow unchecked (which puts every person in the county at risk for unavailable ICU beds).
- The department has also refused to release data about types of calls for service responded to which could provide more evidence that the county can be better served with social services rather than more armed LE responding to most calls.
- The submission by the sheriff of dehumanizing racist imagery regardless of long and pointless rationale should be summarily removed from all public documents. This type of amplifying of vigilantism cannot be tolerated - especially from a public "servant".