Abbreviation KCSO Employees 1,239 | Formed 1866 Annual budget $16.9 million (2011) | |
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Legal personality Governmental: Government agency Operations jurisdiction* County of Kern in the state of California, USA | ||
The Kern County Sheriff's Office is the agency responsible for law enforcement within the County of Kern, California, in the United States. The agency provides: law enforcement within the county, maintain the jails used by both the county and municipalities, and provides search and rescue. The Sheriff's Office contains over 1,200 sworn officers and civilian employees. Its jurisdiction contains all of the unincorporated areas of the county, approximately 8,000 square miles. The headquarters is located at 1350 Norris Road in Bakersfield. There are 15 additional substations located throughout the county. The metro patrol area is divided into four regions: north, south, east, and west.
Contents
Organization
The Sheriff's Office is divided into the following units and subunits:
Office of the Undersheriff
Administrative Services
Detention
Field Operation
Investigations
Volunteer Services
Station and substations
The Sheriff's Office is headquartered at 1350 Norris Road in Bakersfield. There are 15 additional substations located throughout the county. They are:
Fallen officers
Since the establishment of the Kern County Sheriff's Office, 27 officers and citizen volunteer have given their lives in service to the County of Kern.
Misconduct
In December 2010, Jose Lucero, a recovering drug addict with mental health issues, died after a confrontation with Kern County Sheriff's deputies. The family contended that the deputies beat Lucero to death. In November 2012, Lucero's family was awarded a $4.5 million judgment in a wrongful death lawsuit against the deputies, the sheriff's office, and Kern County.
On May 9, 2013, it was reported that Bakersfield resident David Sal Silva died after having been beaten by members of the agency. The assault on Silva was video recorded by multiple witnesses, although the resultant video was seized by law enforcement on the scene.
In December 2015, press reports indicated Kern County law enforcement officers killed more people per than any other county in the United States.
In May 2015, it was reported that the Kern Country Sheriff's Department settled two civil lawsuits in five days in misconduct cases. One settlement, reported to be in the amount of $1 million, was paid out to a survivor of a sexual assault committed by Kern County Sheriff's Deputy Gabriel Lopez. The Kern County Sheriff's office has been found to have a longstanding program of attempting cash payoffs to women who have accused deputies of sexual assault.