The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Riverside County sheriff’s department needs oversight
On Thursday, attorneys and family members of deceased jail inmates announced three federal lawsuits against Riverside County following a troubling spike in jail deaths.
According to KABC, the lawsuits accuse the county of “negligence, wrongful death, medical malpractice and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other complaints.”
Last year, 19 inmates died while in the custody of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, double the average number of jail deaths.
The surge in jail deaths prompted California Attorney General Rob Bonta to announce a sweeping investigation into the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department earlier this year.
“Chad Bianco’s best is not good enough,” Marissa Vasquez, sister of one of the inmates, said at the Thursday news conference.
The lawsuits are but the latest indicator that Sheriff Bianco is leading the department, one of the largest in the state and by extension the country, right off a cliff.
The department was most recently in the news for a totally farcical incident in which deputies handed off 60 pounds of methamphetamine to a suspected drug dealer, then lost track of it all.
Before that, the department had to settle another federal lawsuit from an elderly Lake Elsinore couple after “deputies broke down multiple doors inside” of the couples’ home and conducted a warrantless (and fruitless) search.
On top of it all, Bianco has failed to deliver on campaign promises to reduce contract costs to cities for sheriff’s department services (in fact, they’ve increased).
And back in 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union and community groups warned, “For years, this department has demonstrated a pattern of racist policing practices, rampant patrol and jail deaths, and a refusal to comply with recommendations from oversight agencies and a court-mandated consent decree.” The department, the groups noted, had a relatively high rate of killings
per arrest and an abysmally low clearance rate when it comes to solving homicides.
All bad news, obviously, which demands action from Riverside County supervisors who don’t want to do their part to enhance needed oversight over the broken department.
Los Angeles County, for example, has a Civilian Oversight Commission which offers recommendations into sheriff’s department policies and conducts community outreach.
Though not without flaws as far as how it has actually operated, Orange County established an Office of Independent Review to provide oversight over that county’s public safety departments.
The same should happen in Riverside County, at bare minimum. Riverside County is a diverse county, with a growing population. Yet the big law enforcement entity in the county is troublingly backward.
One major impediment to all of this, though, is the stranglehold the county’s deputies union has over county government. As I warned at the time, the union recruited Bianco for the 2018 election to successfully take out Sheriff Stan Sniff because he didn’t bow to the union. The union has also been a key force behind the Democratic majority on the Board of Supervisors, with newcomer Yxstian Gutierrez relying on their support to oust Supervisor Jeff Hewitt in November.
Supervisor Washington and fellow Democrat V. Manuel Perez both enthusiastically supported Bianco’s election in 2018 and have been reliable allies of the deputies union.
Check out this enthusiastic quote from Perez from 2018, “I support Chad in his run for sheriff and look forward to carrying out a new approach to public safety.”
And this from Supervisor Washington: “It’s time for a change and Chad Bianco is just the right person. He’s a fresh face full of fresh ideas on how to provide better service to Riverside County residents while at the same time, creating better efficiencies”
Yes, fresh ideas like losing 60 pounds of meth, warrantless raids and allowing people to die in the jails.
Washington, in particular, is especially repulsive. He is busy touting his endorsement from Chad Bianco for his reelection bid to the Board of Supervisors. So don’t expect anything from him.
But Supervisor Perez has some heartburn for his role in creating the mess in Riverside County’s sheriff’s department and has previously pushed for some oversight. Now he just needs to revive the topic for discussion and put his colleagues on the record again.