Leadership Matters in Public Safety

Leadership matters in public safety. I am a working police officer, combat veteran and state and local labor leader. I got into public service because I care about serving residents.

The Contra Costa Sheriff’s office should be on the forefront change to improve safety and working with the community. Unfortunately, we are lagging behind the times. Did you know that a significant amount of our deputies aren’t certified to work patrol?

Currently, most of the deputies within the Sheriff’s Office work in jails or court security. This has led to major service disruptions and slow response to 911 calls. It isn’t just the amount of deputies that’s the issue. We need people trained to do the job. Most deputies who are certified to work patrol throughout the county work an unsustainable mandatory 50 hours of overtime a month. With vacancy savings (extra money) the Sheriff had an opportunity to double the recruiting team years ago. Patrol beats could be filled right now if the Sheriff would insist his deputies are all offered the opportunity to be certified for patrol. I plan restructure patrol and ensure that new deputies coming onboard are patrol certified.

New positions without training staff to work patrol doesn’t equate to bodies on the street. It could take a year to deploy them. The time to do that would have been a year ago.

As Sheriff, I will work with to expand the role of MHET (The mental health engagement team) that partners law enforcement with clinical professionals as an alternate co-responder model for mental health interventions.

I’ll also work closely to support with the county’s new A3 mobile crisis response and expand crisis intervention training for deputies. The Sheriff’s office had the opportunity to implement MHET program in 2012. Most of the county implemented it in 2016. CCSO got the first MHET team in 2021.

I will restore crime analysis, a fundamental tool which help use data and intelligence to track and solve crimes. This is key for our work to impact property crime, organized retail theft, and implement crime prevention efforts with the community. The professional staff that do this work are a key part of law enforcement. Currently the unit is unstaffed. I want to bring us back to where we need to be and put the unit to work and respect the civilian professional staff that work to keep us safe.

I will work to ensure our deputies are equipped with body cameras that the agency needs. Building strong relationships with the community and increasing trust helps us reduce crime. We all must work together on the same page to improve our community.

Change shouldn’t happen because election season is here. If you were in a relationship with someone for 12 years and the only time they listened to you was when you decided that perhaps it was time to leave, would it have confidence that they were committed to your well being? You deserve leadership that will take action to implement change year round, and build consistent strong relationships with the public. I look forward to working with you to bring forth that change that we need and you deserve.

Ben Therriault

To learn more www.ben4sheriff.com