Blog note; This article refers to a 2018-2019 Riverside County Grand Jury report toward end of article.
Three advocacy groups have called on California Attorney
General Rob Bonta to investigate the Riverside County Sheriff's Department for
its policing practices, deaths in custody and what they say is a refusal to
comply with court orders.
A letter outlining the grievances, and addressed to the office
of the attorney general, was released to the public Thursday by the three
groups: the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Starting Over Inc., and
Riverside All of Us or None.
The letter questions the department's use-of-force practices,
claiming the sheriff's department uses deadly force with a frequency seen only
in counties with much larger populations, like Los Angeles.
They also claimed that the department has a high rate of
deaths in the course of making arrests, citing statistics reported to the
California Department of Justice.
However, the groups did not give a detailed breakdown of how
they calculated their figures, making them difficult to verify.
"We have lost loved ones to unbelievable violence at the
hands of sheriff’s deputies," the letter reads, “and have seen our
community members suffer from undeniably inhumane jail conditions."
The Office of Attorney General said it had received the letter
and was reviewing it.
The sheriff's department did not immediately respond to a
request for comment from The Desert Sun.
The same three groups filed federal complaints against the
sheriff's department in July, alleging it misappropriated CARES Act funds meant
to be used on specific COVID-19 pandemic expenses.
Thursday's letter was cosigned by about 20 other groups,
including the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, IE Coalition for Youth
Justice, the Riverside Coalition for Police Accountability, and the Interfaith
Movement for Human Integrity.
ACLU SoCal Senior Policy Advocate and Organizer Luis Nolasco
said the request was submitted on behalf of those who have died in the
sheriff's department's custody and their families.
"It is our hope that an investigation will lead to
accountability for an agency that has gone unchecked for far too long,"
Nolasco said.
The complaint asks the attorney general to investigate not
only the department's use of force but also the way in which jail overcrowding,
a persistent problem in the county, put those incarcerated at high risk of
contracting COVID-19. Two inmates died of the virus last year, according to the
department's reports, but the groups claim that number could be higher.
The Prison Law Office sued the department last year on the
grounds that it was not adhering to a consent decree, established in 2015,
after it was found the department was not providing inmates with adequate
health care during the pandemic. The suit resulted in a court order for the
department to make public its plan for addressing the pandemic behind bars.
The complaint made public Thursday further alleges
that the department has repeatedly ignored the county's Civil Grand Jury reports related to jail
conditions and other issues.
Accordingly, the group is asking the attorney general to
investigate deaths in custody to determine their cause, as scant information is
often provided about these.
Bonta has shown a willingness to investigate law enforcement
agencies since being appointed attorney general in March. Soon after assuming
the office, Bonta announced in May that the Department of Justice would
investigate the Vallejo Police Department regarding the killing of 22-year-old
San Francisco resident Sean Monterrosa.
In July, Bonta announced that the California DOJ was opening
field offices across the state to investigate police shootings that kill
unarmed civilians. The new offices, as well as Bonta’s directive that law
enforcement agencies must inform his office whenever such a shooting occurs,
were a result of a new law passed by the California Legislature, according to
the Los Angeles Times.
Palm Springs Desert Sun
Christopher Damien and Tom Coulter
September 17, 2021
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