California, Kern County Sheriff’s Office reach policing reform deal

BAKERSFIELD » The California Department of Justice has reached a settlement with the Kern County Sheriff’s Office calling for extensive policing reforms following a four-year probe of allegations ranging from unreasonable use of force to failing to meaningfully investigate civilian complaints, officials said Tuesday.

The settlement submitted for court approval calls for a five-year plan of corrective actions overseen by an independent monitor. But it does not concede any liability by Kern County.

The violence-plagued rural and urban county of about 900,000 residents covers more than 8,000 square miles (20,720 square kilometers) of the San Joaquin Valley, surrounding mountains and part of the Mojave Desert.

Crediting a collaborative effort, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a briefing that the settlement agreement “brings all of us one step closer to our goal of achieving continued significant and lasting improvements in law enforcement practices in Kern County, and ultimately the state of California.”

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, who was first elected to the office in 2006, endorsed the settlement. But he made clear there were fundamental disagreements over underlying serious allegations.

“I do not believe that the men and women of this organization have ever violated constitutional rights, have ever used excessive force that we didn’t deal with,” Youngblood said.

The sheriff added, however, that when the Department of Justice came in “we found deficiencies that they pointed out that they were correct.”

In addition to uses of force, state investigators looked into complaints about unreasonable stops, searches and seizures, and alleged failures to manage and supervise deputies on patrol and those working in jails.

The state also looked into how the Sheriff’s Office received and investigated complaints by civilians and failures to provide meaningful access to people who are not proficient in English and to have a comprehensive community policing program, the attorney general’s office said.

The settlement requires the review and revision of use- of-force policies, emphasizing that force is not a routine part of police and that it is a duty for deputies to intervene if possible when another deputy uses unnecessary or excessive force.

It calls for strengthening use- of-force training and reporting and requiring supervisory investigations of reportable uses of force.

The settlement also covers training on de- escalation techniques and the impact of bias on threat assessments, among many other issues.

Youngblood said 70% of reforms were complete already. He characterized the independent monitor’s role as giving advice on the new policing guidelines.

“I hope no one in the public takes this to mean that we’re going to change our policing because we have a very violent community,” he said, citing 135 homicides this year.