Sonoma Co. Takes Steps To Form New 'Law Enforcement Review Office'

A plan to establish an independent office to review law enforcement conduct is slowly forming in Sonoma County nearly two years after a sheriff’s deputy killed a 13-year-old boy who was carrying a replica assault rifle.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors this week approved the staff positions and budget for the tentatively named Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach, which will include a director and administrative aide for the Review and Outreach office and a sheriff’s lieutenant and aide in the county Sheriff-Coroner’s office.

The budget for the plan would be $435,761 for the remainder of this fiscal year and $827,000 in fiscal year 2016-2017. The director of the office would be paid $154,402, the aide would earn $99,000, the sheriff’s lieutenant would earn $231,828 and the aide would earn $99,000 next fiscal year.

The sheriff’s lieutenant will work as a liaison on all matters that come under the purview of the Review and Outreach office.

The hours-long discussion at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting concerned the basic structure of the county’s proposed Review and Outreach office, a comparison with other law enforcement oversight models in San Diego, Sacramento, Orange and Los Angeles counties and the City of San Jose’s Independent Police Auditor.

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The jurisdiction of the Sonoma County Review and Outreach office would include the unincorporated area of the county and Windsor and Sonoma that receive police services from the sheriff’s office. Whether the office’s jurisdiction would extend to the county’s other cities is still one of several undecided issues.

Recruitment for a director of the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach is to start Sept. 21.

The county intends to consult the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement in the recruitment process. The candidates’ final interviews with the Board of Supervisors are scheduled for early January 2016 and the director would begin work in late January depending on his or her availability.

A 21-member Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force was formed in December 2013 after sheriff’s Deputy Erick Gelhaus killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez on Oct. 22, 2013 in unincorporated Sonoma County just outside Santa Rosa’s southwest city limits. Lopez was walking on Moorland Avenue with a replica rifle designed to resemble an AK-47 that Gelhaus believed was a real weapon. Months of demonstrations, rallies and marches followed the fatal shooting, and Lopez’s family has filed a wrongful death suit against the county, sheriff’s office and Gelhaus.

In its final report after 18 months of meetings, the Community and Law Enforcement Task Force called for the formation of an independent law enforcement oversight body to audit the investigation of serious complaints by community members about sheriff’s office employees.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday said it was essential the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach form as swiftly as possible, but also that the director selected be the right person for the job.

--Bay City News