How county can fix Sheriff Department's challenges

For the first time in almost 24 years, Santa Clara County voters get to choose a new sheriff in the election now underway. Your ballot has landed in your mailbox, and you have the power to choose the direction of the Sheriff's Department for the next four years, and probably longer.

Current Sheriff Laurie Smith has demonstrated contempt for the law and the people she was elected to serve, leading Mayor Sam Liccardo to call for her resignation and the Board of Supervisors to unanimously pass a no-confidence resolution.

As a longtime employee of the Sheriff's Department, I witnessed a department that spiraled downward due to cronyism, nepotism and retaliation among Smith's favored few — along with unaddressed racism, sexual harassment and serious allegations of wrongdoing by the sheriff herself.

The critical problems in our Sheriff's Department won't be fixed overnight. For years, I “went through proper channels” to report racial discrimination, sexual harassment and misconduct. The sheriff and top officers such as my opponent Kevin Jensen took no action and allowed the problems to fester. I joined a successful lawsuit in 2014 to address these issues, but the insider culture of the department remains resistant to change.

Our next sheriff needs to shake up the command staff to bring diversity and fresh thinking at the top. Obstruction of civilian oversight by the Office of Correction and Law Enforcement Monitoring must end, and OCLEM must move swiftly to fully investigate any allegations of deputy misconduct, especially when force is used. Recruitment efforts must be expanded to a wider range of candidates so that our department reflects the diversity of our community.

As the only leading candidate who is Black, I bring my experiences of discrimination and retaliation in the department to this campaign. We must expose any and all racist behavior from members of the department, including the private Facebook group 1036 SCCSO, where racist posts are too often seen. Action must be taken to discipline or terminate offenders. In 2015, eight deputies were involved in more than 3,000 racist, misogynistic and homophobic messages, and Jensen advocated for their continued employment.

One of the biggest issues for the next sheriff is the new jail under construction. Currently, about 40% of our inmates present with mental health and/or substance abuse issues; with a jail population of about 2,500, that's about 1,000 people. But we only have 48 beds in our mental health unit and are severely understaffed.

We need a full review of the mental health challenges in our community and the level of services required to properly address those challenges. To reduce the impact on our jails, we need to expand San Jose's Mobile Crisis Response Team countywide. In cases where a person is arrested, we must enhance services in the jails to maintain therapy and medications on an individualized basis. And post-release, we must provide continuity of care to reduce recidivism.

The failure to address mental health needs in our communities has left the Sheriff's Department as the provider of last resort. With greater awareness of the depth of this crisis, the new jail under construction and a massive state budget surplus, we have a rare opportunity to make thoughtful changes to a broken system.

My introduction to the Sheriff's Department was quite unusual. Mistakenly arrested at age 19, I spent a few nights in the county jail before being exonerated. It led me to choose law enforcement as my career, and I remain dedicated to fixing the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department and restoring trust with the communities we serve.