As part of Noozhawk’s June 7 primary election coverage, we are publishing Q&As with candidates running for contested county races of sheriff-coroner; clerk-recorder-assessor-registrar of voters; and county superintendent of schools.
Candidate answers may be lightly edited for spelling and formatting, but are otherwise presented as they were submitted.
For sheriff-coroner, candidates include Bill Brown and Juan Camarena.
The June 7 election is a vote-by-mail election with ballot drop-off boxes and polling places also available for returning ballots.
Click here for more information about the positions on the June 7 ballot and how to cast your vote.
Sheriff-Coroner Candidate Bill Brown
Noozhawk: Why do you want to be elected as sheriff-coroner of Santa Barbara County? What makes you the most qualified candidate for sheriff?
Bill Brown: The reason I am running for re-election is to continue providing stable, compassionate and transparent chief executive leadership of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office during these uncertain times. Now is not the time for a change in the leadership of your Sheriff’s Office.
By any objective assessment, I am the most qualified candidate, having 15 years of experience as Santa Barbara County’s sheriff-coroner, 14 years as a chief of police in two agencies in two states, and over 12 years of service as a line-level officer (police officer), supervisor (sergeant), manager (lieutenant) and command level officer (acting captain) in an inner city police department in Los Angeles County.
I was also elected by my peers as the president of both the California Police Chiefs Association and the California State Sheriffs Association, the only person to have ever held both positions. This year I was elected as the vice president of the Major County Sheriffs of America, and I am slated to become the president in 2024. I am a graduate of some of the nation’s top law enforcement executive training programs, including the Delinquency Control Institute, the FBI National Academy, the Northwest Command College, the FBI National Executive Institute and the National Sheriffs’ Institute.
Noozhawk: The department has failed its response time performance measure (responding to 90% of in-progress calls within eight minutes of dispatch) for the past three years. What does the department need to change to meet that goal?
Bill Brown: Although we have achieved the vast majority of our 2021-22 performance measures, the primary reason for not meeting this performance measure is a chronic lack of staffing. As you have heard me state for years, we have a structural staffing deficit in our Sheriff’s Office. In order to meet contract and grant requirements, and still provide for adequate investigative services in our detective bureaus, we do not have our patrol squads fully staffed. Our response times are longer since, unlike most police departments, we provide service to a large geographic area that lengthens response times.
Noozhawk: The department has used unbudgeted overtime hours and mandatory overtime shifts to cover for years of understaffing. What does the department need to do to hire and retain enough people to fill the budgeted positions? (Noozhawk note: A recent county report found that the custody division has 26 vacant positions.)
Bill Brown: As mentioned above, the Sheriff’s Office is not properly funded for the number of positions needed in both the law enforcement and custody branches. For many years we have asked the Board of Supervisors for the funding necessary to mitigate the overtime.
First, we must receive funding approval for the above referenced positions. Next, we must recruit and hire a sufficient number of candidates to fill these positions, and we must continue to support the continued health and well-being of our workforce through our innovative and well-received Employee Wellness Program.
There have also been many innovative steps taken over the past five years to increase our ability to attract and hire employees. In late 2021 and early 2022, we successfully hired our budgeted number of law enforcement deputies and over-hired deputy sheriff positions. We still had to use overtime, though, since the newly-hired deputies were going through 10 months of academy and field training before they could work alone in the field.
Our retention percentage is actually one of the best in Santa Barbara County. With sufficient authorized positions, retention would be increased even further. Several internal staffing studies have been completed, as well as several external consultants’ reports that all show the need to increase our budgeted staffing. The number of currently budgeted positions is insufficient. Even if they were all filled, we would still have to use overtime to fill positions due to illness, training, vacations, military leave, etc.
Noozhawk: Both candidates have emphasized the importance of addressing local opioid overdoses. What role does the Sheriff’s Department have in addressing the opioid epidemic?
Bill Brown: Sheriff’s deputies are often the first to arrive at the scene of an overdose, and under my leadership they were the first Santa Barbara County law enforcement officers to be trained in carry and use of Narcan in the field. As sheriff, I brought Project Opioid to Santa Barbara County, the first county in California to embrace this innovative approach that was developed and is in use in Florida by six counties.
Through it the Sheriff’s Office has brought together key leaders from the local government, law enforcement, medicine, education, treatment, faith and business communities to study our local opioid problem and develop a plan to address the supply and demand sides of this vexing problem. We will do this in the near future by expanding the availability and distribution of Narcan, through enhanced narcotic enforcement against drug dealers, through improved prevention programs for the community and our youth, by expanding community-based and residential addiction treatment opportunities, by follow-up contact with near-fatal overdose victims, and by taking steps to reduce the stigma of addiction in order to promote an expansion of intervention and treatment.
The report “The Changing Overdose Crisis in Santa Barbara County: A Community Needs Assessment” documents the underlying problem and may be viewed by clicking on the “Project Opioid” icon at sbsheriff.org.
Noozhawk: To what degree should the department do more to facilitate drug and alcohol treatment for people accused and jailed for substance-related allegations?
Bill Brown: For many years, the Sheriff’s Office has been a leader in offering addiction treatment services to those incarcerated in our jail system. The Sheriff’s Treatment Program (S.T.P.) offers both 12-step and clinical addiction treatment services, life skills training, and opportunities for personal development and growth. The Medication Assisted Treatment (M.A.T.) program uses powerful, long-term medication treatment that negates the euphoric effects of opioids and other drugs, thereby making it easier for those with addiction problems to stay away from drugs. Community-based drug treatment programs are also regularly offered and used in both pre-trial and post-conviction diversion programs.
Noozhawk: To what degree should the department do more to facilitate the release of people in custody who are experiencing a mental health crisis or untreated/undertreated mental illness?
Bill Brown: Under my leadership, the Sheriff’s Office has been a pioneer in this area. In November 2020, we launched a 10-bed Jail Based Competency Treatment (J.B.C.T.) program that provides intensive mental health services to mentally ill inmates. The program has successfully restored to competency more than 60 inmates in an average of 58 days. We are currently attempting to double the size of this program through an agreement with California’s Department of State Hospitals.
For the past three years, in a collaborative partnership with the county Department of Behavioral Wellness, we have also paired sheriff’s deputies with clinicians to respond to mental health emergencies. Our Mental Health Co-Response Teams are doing an extraordinary job resolving problems and connecting people in crisis with community-based services, instead of making arrests and putting mentally-ill people in jail.
In the first year we received over 3,000 such calls, approximately 1,600 of which were handled by a co-response team. Only 11 of those calls resulted in an arrest. In response to these and many other successes, the Board of Supervisors has funded our three existing Co-Response Teams for the next several years, and is considering adding one or more additional teams. Since many of the people served by the Co-Response Teams are chronically mentally ill, homeless and/or drug or alcohol-addicted, the program helps keep the jail population down by finding appropriate alternatives to custody for most of this population.
Noozhawk: What can the Sheriff’s Department do to increase crisis intervention skills and behavioral health training for all law enforcement officers in the department?
Bill Brown: The Sheriff’s Office currently requires all of its sheriff’s deputies, custody deputies and dispatchers to complete eight hours of Critical Incident Training. It also has a cadre of deputies who have completed 40 hours of such training, and is increasing the number of personnel who receive the 40 hours of additional training. One such class containing Sheriff’s deputies, Probation officers, Santa Barbara Police officers and Behavioral Wellness clinicians began last Monday and is presently underway.
Noozhawk: The Sheriff’s Department now spends more money on custody operations than law enforcement operations. What is your long-term vision for custody operations in the county?
Bill Brown: One must understand that besides personnel a major cost of custody operations is the care of the inmates. This care includes housing, feeding, clothing and the provision of medical, mental health and dental care. Most county jails were designed and funded to hold inmates for one year or less. They were never designed or funded for long-term care. As a result of California’s mandated Criminal Justice Realignment, we are now housing people who have sentences as high as 10 years or more.
As we have done for years, we will continue to look for alternatives to incarceration, like the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (SWAP) and electronic monitoring. We continue to add programs to help reduce recidivism, such as alcohol and drug avoidance training, and educational programs through Santa Barbara City College and Allan Hancock College. We will soon be working with the building trades and other industries to provide training presentations on the possibilities of employment in their various fields. We continue to work with other county agencies and other groups to provide alternatives to incarceration. We are also active members of Santa Barbara County’s Criminal Justice Mapping Committee. This committee looks for methods to increase communication and data sharing, and to decrease recidivism.
Noozhawk: The Sheriff’s Department orders evacuations for fires, weather-related disasters and other incidents. What changes, if any, are needed in the decision-making process and criteria when considering evacuation orders?
Bill Brown: Over the past 15 years the Sheriff’s Office, County Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management and other public safety agencies have developed considerable expertise in determining when to order evacuations and, in consultation with scientists and other subject matter experts, when to prepare for potential weather-related disasters. Although we are always refining and improving our protocols and collaborative efforts, I do not believe any substantial changes are needed in evacuation decision-making.
Thank you for reviewing my responses to Noozhawk’s questions. I am honored to serve and protect you as Santa Barbara County’s sheriff-coroner. I ask for your continued support, and for your vote on or before June 7.
For additional information and to see the list of more than 1,000 people from all walks of life and from across the political spectrum who have endorsed Sheriff Bill Brown for re-election, please visit BillBrownforSheriff.com.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.