Abbreviation SRPD Agency executive Hank Schreeder, Chief | Employees 247 | |
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency General nature Law enforcement
Local civilian police Headquarters 965 Sonoma Avenue, Santa Rosa | ||
The Santa Rosa Police Department is the police force for Santa Rosa, California. The department has 247 sworn employees.
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History
The department was founded on April 1, 1867.
On July 15, 1935, Santa Rosa Chief of Police Charlie O'Neal was shot and killed at the Santa Rosa police station by a disgruntled rancher, Al Chamberlain. Chamberlain then walked away from the police station, searching for Sonoma County Sheriff Harry Patteson. Patteson encountered Chamberlain and then tackled and disarmed him, along with two other people. Chamberlain was sentenced to life imprisonment and died at San Quentin Prison.
Budget
Its budget is more than $40,000,000, comprising more than one third of the city's entire General Fund Budget.
Gang task force
The Santa Rosa Police Department formed a gang investigation unit in the late 1980s. That unit was disestablished in 2006 due to budget shortages. SRPD formed the Gang Crime Investigations Team, currently known as the Gang Crimes Team. One of its detectives is assigned to the North Bay Regional Gang Task Force, an FBI-led movement.
Controversy
In September 2012, a federal jury in San Francisco awarded $500,000 to the family of Richard DeSantis, a mentally ill unarmed man fatally shot outside his home by Santa Rosa Police in April 11, 2007. The jury found that a Santa Rosa police sergeant violated DeSantis' civil rights. Officers testified at the trial that they did not know DeSantis was unarmed, and used nonlethal rubber bullets to subdue DeSantis before a sergeant used deadly force. The shooting was found justified by the Sonoma County District Attorney's office.