EDITOR: I have good news for supporters of the effort to create a $1.8 million oversight bureaucracy for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office: it already exists and it’s practically free (“Push for oversight ballot measure,” Sunday). The civil grand jury has subpoena power and is specifically authorized to obtain law enforcement officer records.
It already is endowed by the state Constitution with the powers the ballot initiative supporters are trying to obtain. Best of all, the civil grand jury costs the county only about $100,000 a year.
Unfortunately, civil grand juries are often reluctant to use these important powers, because the 19 citizen volunteers who serve generally feel they lack the expertise to evaluate law enforcement behavior.
However, the civil grand jury could be an ideal forum for many of the tasks of the beefed-up oversight panel proposed by Jerry Threet.
Instead of creating a costly new drain on the budget, it might be more efficient to increase funding to the civil grand jury for the purpose of retaining expertise — when needed — to explore citizens’ complaints about law enforcement. Why reinvent the wheel?
October 25, 2019
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat
Letter from Matt Stone, Petaluma
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