| Alameda County Sheriff's Office | |
| Abbreviation | ACSO |
| Patch of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | State of California, USA |
| Legal jurisdiction | Alameda County, California |
| General nature |
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| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Oakland, California |
| Sworn members | 1000+ |
| Unsworn members | 500+ |
| Sheriff responsible | Gregory J. Ahern |
| Facilities | |
| Stations | 5 |
| Jails | 2 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) is a law enforcement agency serving Alameda County, California. The ACSO is accredited through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), the American Correctional Association (ACA), National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) and the California Medical Association (CMA).
As of 2008, the ACSO has approximately 1500 positions, over 1000 of which are sworn peace officers.
The ACSO is charged with
The sheriff and coroner is an elected position currently filled by Gregory J. Ahern.
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The ACSO operates two detention facilities (or jails). The Santa Rita Jail is the primary facility that houses most people arrested or convicted of crimes in the county and is located in Dublin, CA. The Glenn Dyer Detention facility, also known as the North County Jail, houses a smaller number of inmates and is located in downtown Oakland, directly adjacent to the Wiley W. Manuel court building in which the majority of the county's criminal calendar is initially heard.[2]
The ACSO operates a police academy as well as training exercises for the greater law enforcement community in the Bay Area.
Hosted by the ACSO, Urban Shield is the largest urban "SWAT" exercise so far in the USA. Held in the fall, it provides an opportunity for police special teams from all over the nation to train in 20 scenarios over a continuous 50 hour exercise. These scenarios range from an active shooter on the UC Berkeley campus to airplane hijacking to maritime interdiction and a 20 mile hike.[3]
ACSO operates a police substation in San Leandro, near John George Psychiatric Pavilion and a juvenile detention center.
The ACSO operates a crime laboratory that is accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. The Crime Lab, located at the Eden Township substation, receives and analyzes evidence from law enforcement agencies throughout the county. The Crime Lab has capabilities in controlled substance analysis, latent fingerprint recovery, ballistics, tool mark identification, and DNA extraction and analysis. The crime lab staff can also serve as crime scene investigators upon request by law enforcement agencies in the county.[4]
The ACSO operates the Coroner's Bureau in downtown Oakland. Coroner's Pathologists, Deputy Sheriff's, Forensic Death Investigators, and Sheriff's technicians, assist all law enforcement agencies throughout the county in determining the type and manner of death of all persons in Alameda County. They also make contact of next of kin anywhere in the world, and seize and protect assets' of decedents whenever needed. When next of kin cannot be located they decide when to refer the case to the Public Administrator. [5]
During the Free Speech Movement riots of the 1960s, Alameda County Sheriff deployed several squads of officers. Clad in light blue jumpsuits, they quickly became known by anti-government protesters as "The Blue Meanies".[6]
Most of the cities within the county have their own police forces, including the Berkeley Police Department and the Oakland Police Department. The municipal police departments provide routine law enforcement services for those cities, with the ACSO providing corresponding services for unincorporated regions of Alameda County.
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