Candidate for
Sheriff-Coroner; County of San Luis Obispo

GANGS + "The spread of gangs and gang activity throughout San Luis Obispo County is one of the most difficult challenges law enforcement faces. I plan to make confronting gangs one of my top priorities as your next Sheriff. Working with the Board of Supervisors and the cities, we should be making use of gang injunctions which have been successful in other areas. We also need early intervention in the schools and greater involvement by parents, teachers, coaches, and clergy."

DRUGS + "Closely related to the gang problem is the continuing proliferation of illegal drugs in our county. About 70% of all crimes are drug or alcohol-related. The Sheriff's Department should expand its efforts to shrink drug demand, especially among young people. Once demand shrinks, the supply will diminish as well. We should be considering programs such as random drug testing for high school students or athletes as well as better ways to rehabilitate habitual drug users and get them back to being productive members of society."

TRAINING + "The Sheriff's Department spends a great deal of money on training new deputies. Yet, more money does not always translate into a better deputy. We should give deputies the opportunity to work with other law enforcement agencies, even in other states, in order to learn and adopt new policies and practices which could improve the delivery of law enforcement services to the residents of San Luis Obispo County."

NEW IDEAS + "The Sheriff's Department is an old institution, over 150 years old in fact. It is hard to change old institutions which are set in their ways. Yet, we must change to adopt to new circumstances and a new, ever-evolving world. As your next Sheriff, I will be open and supportive of new ideas and new ways of getting the job done, more efficiently and more productively. There is a great deal the public sector can learn from the private sector and I will seek to integrate private sector approaches into the functioning of the Department."

SOUND MANAGEMENT + "We can improve management practices at the Department so as to save money which could be allocated to field work. For example, does the Department really need to spend $180,000 a year on the position of Undersheriff when the Sheriff only manages three other people? This position could be eliminated and we could use those savings to begin the process of building much-need Substations in Nipomo and Cambria."