Kern County Sheriff's Department

The Sheriff's Office is headquartered at 1350 Norris Road in Bakersfield. There are 15 additional substations located throughout the county. They are:[2]

Since the establishment of the Kern County Sheriff's Office, 27 officers and citizen volunteers have died while on duty.[3]

In 2006, Sheriff Donny Youngblood declared it was "better financially" for Kern County to commit a "bad shooting" and kill a suspect, then pay the family "three million bucks", versus them crippling a suspect and having to "take care of them for life".[4]

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. [5]

On May 9, 2013, it was reported that Bakersfield resident David Sal Silva died after resisting arrest. The assault on Silva was video recorded by multiple witnesses, although the resultant video was seized by law enforcement on the scene. Silva's autopsy report uses the description "acute intoxication" to describe Silva's condition when he died. His blood alcohol level was 0.095, over the limit for driving a motor vehicle. The autopsy also found methamphetamine and amphetamine, both stimulants, in Silva's blood. [6][7] [8]

In December 2015, press reports indicated Kern County law enforcement officers killed more people per capita than any other county in the United States.[9] 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. [10]

On May 29, 2019, Chief Deputy Justin Fleeman was fired after having been placed on administrative leave on September 20, 2018.[11][12] Fleeman unsuccessfully contested Sheriff Donny Youngblood in the June 2018 primary election. Fleeman's campaign made a point to expose corruption and ethics violations by Sheriff Youngblood and the Kern County Sheriff's Office. Youngblood in turn criticized Fleeman for attempting to ruin his reputation and the reputation of the department.[13] In response to his firing, Fleeman filed a wrongful termination lawsuit which he hopes will unfold in court and result in "people seeing I was actually truthful during the campaign."[11]

• List of law enforcement agencies in California
• Bakersfield Police Department

• Kern County Sheriff's Office