Sacramento County Sheriff's Department

Weapons

The Sacramento Sheriff's department currently issues versions of the 9mm Glock. Deputies also have less lethal items that are issued to them including but not limited to an X26 taser, expandable baton and, OC spray.

Organization

Sheriff Scott Jones

Office of the Sheriff

Community Relations Unit Legislative Affairs Media and Public Affairs Sheriff's Outreach Community Advisory Board Special Investigations/Intelligence Bureau

Office of the Undersheriff - Erik Maness

Fleet Services

Contract and Regional Services

Airport Division Civil Bureau Court Security Division Folsom Dam Security Security Services

Correctional Services

Correctional Food Services Correctional Health Division Main Jail Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center Work Release Division

Field and Investigative Services

Air Operations Bicycle Rapid Response Unit Critical Incident Negotiation Team (CINT) Emergency Operations Explosive Ordnance Detail (Bomb Squad) Off-Duty Employment Patrol Training Regional Terrorism Threat Assessment Center (R.T.T.A.C) Search and Rescue Special Enforcement Detail Volunteer Services Central Division Centralized Investigations Division North Division Rancho Cordova Police Department

Support Services

History

The first elected sheriff of Sacramento County was Joseph McKinney. In 1850, McKinney and his deputies were involved in a series of confrontations with Gold Rush-era squatters around the city of Sacramento. McKinney was killed in one such confrontation in August 1850.

Sheriff Don Cox approved the formation of a Sheriff's Air Squadron in the late 1930s or early 1940s, prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Squadron was inactive during World War II as a result of restrictions on civil aviation near the California coast. After the war ended, it became active again and began to undertake support activities for the Sheriff's Department, including prisoner transfers and search and rescue activities.

The Sheriff's Department underwent significant changes in the 1970s. In the 1970 Sheriff's election, the Deputy Sheriff's Association voiced support for challenger Duane Lowe against incumbent John Misterly, following disagreements regarding deputies' training and pay. Lowe was elected in a run-off election, and during the next six years oversaw efforts to modernize the Sheriff's Department, extend new services to the community, and improve pay and working conditions for deputies.

The Sheriff's Department's canine detail was created in 1979.

In 1998, Theodore Kaczynski was held by the Sacramento Sheriff's Department on suicide watch during pre-trial interviews to determine his competency to stand trial and act as his own lawyer during criminal proceedings.

In 2001, multiple-murderer Nikolay Soltys, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted, was captured by the Sacramento Sheriff's Department following one of the largest manhunts in Sacramento history.

1991 Sacramento hostage crisis

The 1991 Sacramento Hostage Crisis occurred on April 4, 1991 when four people took hostages at a Good Guys! Electronics store located at the Florin Mall. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Special Enforcement Detail (SED) and Critical Incident Negations Team (CINT) handled the incident.

The local media broadcast the crisis during which hostage takers lined up some of the hostages in front of the entrance as human shields. After which a twenty-year-old male hostage was shot in the leg released to deliver the gang's message and plight to the local media. They claimed they were trying to draw attention to the troubles of their home country and that they were on a suicide mission. During the rescue attempt three hostages as well as three of the four hostage-takers were killed and fourteen hostages were injured. The situation was the largest hostage rescue operation in U.S. history, with over 50 hostages being held at gunpoint.

Fallen officers

Since the establishment of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, 18 officers have died in the line of duty.

Alleged misconduct

The department has been the target of multiple accusations of brutality, abuse, mismanagement, and cover-ups by deputies, many at the Sacramento County Jail while under the supervision of then Undersheriff John McGinness. The Sacramento Bee has documented many such cases in its Watchdog Reports.

Judson King

In 1998, a deputy at the jail ordered Judson King to move faster, to which he replied, "I am." King claimed that his elbow was immediately fractured, and later received a settlement of $35,000.

Troy Zwierzynski

In 1999, Troy Zwierzynski had surrendered himself at the jail to complete a work project as part of a misdemeanor sentence. While in a holding cell, he said, he heard a man screaming and turned to look. A deputy ordered Zwierzynski to look away, and "slammed him against the wall violently twisting back his wrists and arms," the complaint states. "The deputies asked (him) if he was going to look the next time. ... Plaintiff, in tears, responded that he would not look again." His wrist was broken, and he later received a settlement of $35,000.

Michael Hay

On December 22, 2000, Sacramento State student Michael Hay was drunk in his apartment when Sheriff's Deputies Rebecca Eubanks and Robert Book confronted him about loud music. After Hay was belligerent toward Deputy Book, and made harassing comments to Eubanks, Book "handcuffed him and walked him downstairs" and arrested him for being drunk in public; the charges were later dropped and Book was reprimanded because his "arrest of Michael Hay was without legal authority." Hay claimed that while he was being booked at the Sacramento County Jail, staff made repeated comments about what his stay was going to be like. Deputy Eubanks said, "We're really, really bored and we need somebody to play with, so you're it, OK?" Later the staff nurse warned him that "they like to hurt people around here" in hopes he would stop picking fights verbally with the arresting officers. An unidentified officer made a shadow-boxing motion. When Hay was eventually searched, an officer twisted his thin frail arm for so long and with such force that he eventually broke it. After spending the night with a broken arm and no medical attention, he was released and sought medical care three days later. In 2002, Hay settled a lawsuit against the department for $147,500. Michael Hay has since stated that his claims against the Sacramento Police were false or exaggerated.

Darryl O'Brien

In 2002, 52-year-old Darryl O'Brien, a woman with no previous criminal record, was "dropped," fracturing her knee. After her handcuffs were removed, her arm was yanked so hard behind her back that her shoulder was fractured. Her claim against the county was later settled for $7,500.

Jafar Afshar

On June 7, 2003, ex-Marine Jafar Afshar was arrested for public intoxication, charges that were dropped the next morning. During booking, his handcuffs were taken off and he was immediately thrown to the ground, splitting his head open and leaving a pool of blood on the floor. A year later, Afshar filed a federal lawsuit (Afshar v. County of Sacramento) alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The only officer named in the lawsuit, Officer Spaid, said in his incident report that Afshar "swung toward him." Afshar received two sets of videotape, the first showing no incident and the second with missing video, which Afshar's attorney called a cover-up.

Mihaita Constantin

Mihaita Constantin, a 33-year-old Romanian immigrant, was arrested on July 14, 2003 on suspicion of drunk driving. While in one of the holding cells, he refused to sit. Five deputies rushed in, handcuffed Constantin, and scuffled with him for well over 5 minutes, putting a towel over his head. Constantin was left semi-conscious, towel still over his head, with a broken hand, fractured nose, and severe bruises; no officers were injured. On June 29, 2004, Constantin filed a federal lawsuit against the department alleging violations of his civil rights; he was later found dead in a crashed car on a mountain slope near Blue Canyon. His wife has returned to Europe but is continuing the lawsuit.

Branden Johnson

On October 29, 2005, Branden Johnson was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and taken to Sacramento County Jail. He told the Sacramento Bee that during his incarceration, "deputies beat him when he was shackled hand and foot, repeatedly slamming him to the ground." The department denied the allegations and provided an 11-minute video clip from Johnson's 14-hour incarceration, showing Johnson allegedly banging his head against the wall. Johnson stated that he'd like to see the whole video but Undersheriff John McGinness, in charge of operations at the jail, declined to immediately provide the rest of the footage.

Don Anthony Antoine

On June 19, 2004, Don Antoine was arrested by Sacramento Police officers on charges of assaulting a firefighter, driving under the influence of alcohol, and possession of nunchucks after he ran his car off the Arden-Garden Connector in the Gardenland neighborhood of Sacramento and started a fight with firefighters who responded to the accident. He accused deputies of using excessive force when he says they kicked, punched, beat, and choked him while shackling him to the floor grate in a Sacramento County Jail cell, an event that the deputies deny even took place. On April 16, 2008, a federal grand jury awarded Antoine $170,000 after they found the deputies acted maliciously when they beat him, and one of the jurors was quoted saying the deputies "chained him to a grate like a dog."