| Sacramento County Sheriff's Department | |
| Abbreviation | SSD |
| Patch of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. | |
| Logo of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. | |
| Motto | Service with Concern |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1850 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | County of Sacramento in the state of California, USA |
| Map of Sacramento County Sheriff's Department's jurisdiction. | |
| Size | 995 square miles (2,580 km2) |
| Population | 1,223,499 |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Sacramento, California |
| Agency executive | Scott Jones, Sheriff |
| Facilities | |
| Stations | 6 |
| Jails | 2 |
| Helicopters | 4 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, abbreviated as SSD, is a local law enforcement agency that serves Sacramento County, California. It provides general-service law enforcement to unincorporated areas of Sacramento County, as well as incorporated cities within the county that have contracted with the agency for law-enforcement services. Currently only Rancho Cordova has such a contract with the department since the Citrus Heights and Elk Grove Police Departments assumed all police authority and responsibility for their communities in 2006. It also holds primary jurisdiction over facilities operated by Sacramento County, such as local parks, marinas, and government buildings; provides marshal service for the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento; operates the Sacramento County Jail and the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove; and provides services such as laboratories and academy training to smaller law-enforcement agencies within the county. The county sheriff is currently Scott Jones.
Contents |
Sheriff Scott Jones
Office of the Sheriff
Office of the Undersheriff - Mark Iwasa
Correctional and Court Services
Field and Investigative Services
Support Services
Sacramento county's first elected sheriff was Joseph McKinney.[1] In 1850, McKinney and his deputies were involved in a series of confrontations with Gold Rush-era squatters around the city of Sacramento. McKinney was killed in one such confrontation in August 1850.[1]
Sheriff Don Cox approved the formation of a Sheriff's Air Squadron in the late 1930s or early 1940s, prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.[2] The Squadron was inactive during World War II as a result of restrictions on civil aviation near the California coast.[2] After the war ended, it became active again and began to undertake support activities for the Sheriff's Department, including prisoner transfers and search and rescue activities.[2]
The Sheriff's Department underwent significant changes in the 1970s. In the 1970 Sheriff's election, the Deputy Sheriff's Association voiced support for challenger Duane Lowe against incumbent John Misterly, following disagreements regarding deputies' training and pay.[3] Lowe was elected in a run-off election, and during the next six years oversaw efforts to modernize the Sheriff's Department, extend new services to the community, and improve pay and working conditions for deputies.[3]
The Sheriff's Department's canine detail was created in 1979.[4]
In 1998, Theodore Kaczynski was held by the Sacramento Sheriff's Department on suicide watch during pre-trial interviews to determine his competency to stand trial and act as his own lawyer during criminal proceedings.[5]
In 2001, multiple-murderer Nikolay Soltys, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted, was captured by the Sacramento Sheriff's Department following one of the largest manhunts in Sacramento history.[6]
The 1991 Sacramento Hostage Crisis occurred on April 4, 1991 when four people took hostages at a Good Guys! Electronics store located at the Florin Mall. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Special Enforcement Detail (SED) and Critical Incident Negations Team (CINT) handled the incident.
The local media broadcasted the crisis during which hostage takers lined up some of the hostages in front of the entrance as human shields. After which a twenty-year-old male hostage was shot in the leg released to deliver the gang's message and plight to the local media. They claimed they were trying to draw attention to the troubles of their home country and that they were on a suicide mission. During the rescue attempt three hostages as well as three of the four hostage-takers were killed and fourteen hostages were injured. The situation was the largest hostage rescue operation in U.S. history, with over 50 hostages being held at gunpoint.[7]
Since the establishment of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, 18 officers have died in the line of duty.[8]
| Officer | Date of Death | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Sheriff Joseph McKinney |
|
Gunfire |
| Captain Charles J. Ogle |
|
Automobile accident |
| Deputy Sheriff William L. Littlejohn |
|
Vehicular assault |
| Deputy Sheriff Roger L. Bauman |
|
Gunfire |
| Deputy Sheriff Kenneth B. Royal |
|
Gunfire |
| Corporal Bruce Roger Verhoeven |
|
Gunfire |
| Deputy Sheriff Stewart Porter Baird |
|
Assault |
| Christopher W. Boone |
|
Gunfire |
| Deputy Sheriff Eugene M. Luther |
|
Gunfire |
| Detective David E. Miller |
|
Vehicle pursuit |
| Sergeant Richard Earl Deffner |
|
Gunfire |
| Deputy Sheriff Sandra Lee Larson |
|
Automobile accident |
| Deputy Sheriff Joseph Michael Kievernagel |
|
Aircraft accident |
| Deputy Sheriff Kevin Patrick Blount |
|
Aircraft accident |
| Deputy Sheriff Jeffrey Vaughn Mitchell |
|
Gunfire |
| Deputy Sheriff Vu Nguyen |
|
Gunfire |
| Deputy Sheriff Paul William Derouen |
|
Struck by vehicle |
| Deputy Sheriff Lawrence William Canfield |
|
Motorcycle accident |
The department has been the target of multiple accusations of brutality, abuse, mismanagement, and cover-ups by deputies, many at the Sacramento County Jail while under the supervision of then Undersheriff John McGinness. The Sacramento Bee has documented many such cases in its Watchdog Reports.
In 1998, a deputy at the jail ordered Judson King to move faster, to which he replied, "I am." King claimed that his elbow was immediately fractured, and later received a settlement of $35,000.[9]
In 1999, Troy Zwierzynski had surrendered himself at the jail to complete a work project as part of a misdemeanor sentence. While in a holding cell, he said, he heard a man screaming and turned to look. A deputy ordered Zwierzynski to look away, and "slammed him against the wall violently twisting back his wrists and arms," the complaint states. "The deputies asked (him) if he was going to look the next time. ... Plaintiff, in tears, responded that he would not look again." His wrist was broken, and he later received a settlement of $35,000.[9]
On December 22, 2000, Sacramento State student Michael Hay was drunk in his apartment when Sheriff's Deputies Rebecca Eubanks and Robert Book confronted him about loud music. After Hay was belligerent toward Deputy Book, Book "handcuffed him and walked him downstairs" and arrested him for being drunk in public; the charges were later dropped and Book was reprimanded because his "arrest of Michael H. was without legal authority." While Hays was being booked at the Sacramento County Jail, staff made repeated comments about what his stay was going to be like. Deputy Eubanks said, "We're really, really bored and we need somebody to play with, so you're it, OK?" Later the staff nurse warned him that "they like to hurt people around here" and an unidentified officer made a shadow-boxing motion. When Hay was eventually searched, an officer twisted (--twisted what?--) for so long and with such force that he eventually broke it. After spending the night with a broken arm and no medical attention, he was released and sought medical care three days later. In 2002, Hay settled a lawsuit against the department for $147,500.[10]
In 2002, 52-year-old Darryl O'Brien, a woman with no previous criminal record, was "dropped," fracturing her knee. After her handcuffs were removed, her arm was yanked so hard behind her back that her shoulder was fractured. Her claim against the county was later settled for $7,500.[9]
On June 7, 2003, ex-Marine Jafar Afshar was arrested for public intoxication, charges that were dropped the next morning. During booking, his handcuffs were taken off and he was immediately thrown to the ground, splitting his head open and leaving a pool of blood on the floor. A year later, Afshar filed a federal lawsuit (Afshar v. County of Sacramento) alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. ยง 1983. The only officer named in the lawsuit, Officer Spaid, said in his incident report that Afshar "swung toward him."[10] Afshar received two sets of videotape, the first showing no incident and the second with missing video, which Afshar's attorney called a cover-up.[11]
Mihaita Constantin, a 33-year-old Romanian immigrant, was arrested on July 14, 2003 on suspicion of drunk driving. While in one of the holding cells, he refused to sit. Five deputies rushed in, handcuffed Constantin, and scuffled with him for well over 5 minutes, putting a towel over his head. Constantin was left semi-conscious, towel still over his head, with a broken hand, fractured nose, and severe bruises; no officers were injured. On June 29, 2004, Constantin filed a federal lawsuit against the department alleging violations of his civil rights; he was later found dead in a crashed car on a mountain slope near Blue Canyon. His wife has returned to Europe but is continuing the lawsuit.[10]
On October 29, 2005, Branden Johnson was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and taken to Sacramento County Jail. He told the Sacramento Bee that during his incarceration, "deputies beat him when he was shackled hand and foot, repeatedly slamming him to the ground." The department denied the allegations and provided an 11-minute video clip from Johnson's 14-hour incarceration, showing Johnson allegedly banging his head against the wall. Johnson stated that he'd like to see the whole video but Undersheriff John McGinness, in charge of operations at the jail, declined to immediately provide the rest of the footage.[12]
On June 19, 2004, Don Antoine was arrested by Sacramento Police officers on charges of assaulting a firefighter, driving under the influence of alcohol, and possession of nunchucks after he ran his car off the Arden-Garden Connector in the Gardenland neighborhood of Sacramento and started a fight with firefighters who responded to the accident.[13] He accused deputies Chris Baker, Joseph Reeve, Brian Wade, and Christopher Britton of using excessive force when he says they kicked, punched, beat, and choked him while shackling him to the floor grate in a Sacramento County Jail cell, an event that the deputies deny even took place. On April 16, 2008, a federal grand jury awarded Antoine $170,000 after they found the deputies acted maliciously when they beat him, and one of the jurors was quoted saying the deputies "chained him to a grate like a dog."[14]