The Kern County Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Justice have resolved a four-year investigation of potential civil rights abuses with a settlement that implements modest reforms and places the sheriff’s office under oversight from an outside monitor, Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Tuesday.
Becerra had overseen an investigation opened in 2016 by his predecessor, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, that probed civilian complaints of excessive force and other misconduct by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office and the Bakersfield Police Department. The investigation was civil — not criminal — in nature.
In a seven-page complaint filed Tuesday in Kern County Superior Court, Becerra’s deputies alleged that the sheriff’s office used excessive force on residents of Kern County, particularly with the use of its canines; carried out unreasonable stops, searches, arrests and seizures; and committed “legal violations” in using deadly force against people with mental disabilities.
“After a comprehensive investigation,” the complaint says, “the Attorney General’s Office concluded that because of defective or inadequate policies, practices, and procedures, [the Kern County Sheriff’s Office] has failed to uniformly and adequately enforce the law.”
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