San Mateo County sheriff says effort to remove her is resistance to change

In a statement Feb. 11, the sheriff said “false narratives are being spread to destroy the truth and undermine the real progress we have made in the Sheriff’s Office.”  

Corpus said crime, use-of-force complaints and staffing vacancies have all gone down under her leadership and tenure, taking credit for these accomplishments, including the hiring of 182 sworn employees and 124 civilian employees since 2023. 

However, union leaders say staffing is “abysmal” and there are vacancies during every single shift. A statement on behalf of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association and Organization of Sheriff’s Sergeants says the staffing statistics pushed by the sheriff does not include those who have left, including “many of whom quit or went to other agencies rather than work under her.” 

As residents consider whether to extend the Board of Supervisors authority, proponents of Measure A have argued that the distressed workplace environment and insufficient staffing levels are ultimately a threat to public safety, but Corpus denies this claim. 

“The inflammatory rhetoric being pushed is not about crime or leadership — it is driven by union leadership and their ranking allies resistant to change and tied to the previous administration,” Corpus wrote. 

Nearly all of the sworn personnel within the Sheriff’s Office, including every captain and lieutenant, as well as four cities, the county, and all state and federal legislators from the county have called for Corpus’ resignation. 

“The only change Sheriff Corpus has brought to this agency is a culture of fear, abuse, corruption, and retaliation,” the statement from the DSA and OSS read. 

The ongoing “political power grab” is because “the unions are angry” that Corpus did not approve double overtime after nine hours of regular overtime, she alleges. 

In December 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved a six-month temporary funding agreement to pay deputies double for working over nine hours of overtime. The effort was in an effort to address the stress of mandatory overtime rules as a result of critical staffing shortages. This funding agreement was not extended, but the unions state these negotiations “ended long before any of the current issues arose.” 

“Sheriff Corpus is attempting to distract from the real concerns,” the unions’ statement reads. 

Corpus also said a complainant interviewed in Cordell’s investigation made threats against the sheriff to other people, and a former command staff member “resigned due to the pressure from the union.” She would not identify who this was. 

The unions said “we would not put it past Sheriff Corpus to lie and distort reality” and said each of the former members of her command staff “has either been forced out by her or has resigned due to her illegal and immoral activities.” 

“The DSA is not resistant to progress — we are resistant to corruption, alleged criminal behavior, and the extraordinarily toxic work environment that Sheriff Corpus has created,” the union statement read.