DATE:
December 5, 2023
32
TO:
Board of Supervisors
SUBJECTTitleCONDUCT COMPREHENSIVE FISCAL STUDY FOR SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHERIFF DEPUTIES (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer has been working closely with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, District Attorney's Office, and community advocates to get guns and drugs off the streets, stop human trafficking, and increase community policing to prevent property crimes and smash-and-grab robberies. Investing in local public safety services to prevent crime and make neighborhoods safer means investing in our Sheriff's Deputies. The Sheriff's Department has found it difficult to recruit and retain new Deputies. To ensure adequate staffing and prevent burnout, it is vital we examine every option possible to keep trained and experienced Deputies on our streets and in our detention facilities.
Simultaneously, over the past three years, Supervisor Lawson-Remer has aggressively taken several actions to protect justice-involved individuals in our County's care, including making inmate calls free to improve access to human connection, dramatically increasing mental health services and staffing in detention facilities to reduce tragic jail deaths, and expanding fentanyl treatment and harm reduction and other substance abuse prevention programs for incarcerated individuals. She further championed a groundbreaking initiative of safety through services to reduce recidivism, save taxpayer resources, give justice-involved individuals pathways to rehabilitation, and keep our communities safe yet jail deaths continue in part due to staffing challenges and stemming from shortfalls in retention and recruitment. Providing the appropriate level of support for our public safety employees, including Sheriff's Deputies, is vital in ensuring we can properly and effectively care for the people in custody, protect our communities and serve the people ...
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