San Mateo County Board of Supervisors support sheriff oversight

Supervisors formalized their support for a Sheriff’s Office oversight model following a study session discussing the issue. The matter came to the board following a public support campaign by Fixin’ San Mateo County, the nonprofit leading the push for a civilian oversight board and a new Office of the Inspector General.

Jim Lawrence, a former Foster City mayor and chair of Fixin’ San Mateo County’s Board of Directors, said the oversight would not be meant to control the Sheriff’s Office but would instead review public complaints and areas of community concern, provide support for better public policing and enhance transparency.

With that support, Lawrence and other representatives from the organization who spoke during public comment said the Sheriff’s Office could rebuild trust with parts of the community that have been more policed.

In San Mateo County, Black people are nine times more likely than white people to be arrested and Hispanic people are twice as likely, according to figures from the Public Policy Institute of California cited by Fixin’ San Mateo County. Lawrence noted Black residents also represent 27% of officer-related deaths despite making up only 7% of the county’s population.

“If we could eliminate just one of those deaths I think we should do it,” Lawrence said.

Support for the move has also flooded in from federal, state and local leaders including U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo; U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; the North Fair Oaks Community Council and Half Moon Bay City Council, which both receive direct law enforcement services from the Sheriff’s Office; Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco; state Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto; and state Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo; and the San Mateo City Council.

Sheriff-elect Cristina Corpus has also shared her support for some form of oversight, a key endorsement for supervisors. Corpus will take office at the start of the new year once Sheriff Carlos Bolanos finishes his term in office.

Under Assembly Bill 1185, state legislation adopted in 2020 and effective in 2021, the county could create and grant subpoena power to a citizen oversight board, an inspector general or both, Chief Deputy County Attorney David Silberman said. Neither the board, nor either of the bodies, would have the authority to interfere with an elected sheriff’s core law enforcement functions, he noted.

Seven other counties in the state have adopted some form of oversight including San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Sacramento and Sonoma but Silberman noted these bodies are relatively new, limiting analysis of how effective each has been.

“I just sort of ask myself what are we trying to accomplish and I guess it’s best practices, transparency and accountability,” Horsley said. “I would be supportive of creating oversight of the sheriff’s department as long as those are our goals, best practices, transparency and accountability. I do not think this is an easy task.”

But staff would need time to conduct public outreach and additional research before they could present a model to the board for adoption, Silberman noted. When the idea was previously brought to the board, advocates had shared hope the board would act quickly by adopting an oversight model by the end of the year.

Rather than take up to two years to develop a program, Horsley said he believed the county could adopt a model “relatively expeditiously.” Each supervisor shared their individual support for oversight by unanimously approving a motion by Supervisor Warren Slocum stating their intent to establish an oversight model with dual oversight and directing the board’s subcommittee to conduct outreach with staff and return with a proposal.

“There’s community support for this and I think there will be community involvement that will make it better,” Groom said. “So I’m in favor of moving forward with this.”