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 Established
in 1852, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department has the responsibility of
providing law enforcement to a vast area ranging from the Lava Beds National
Monument on the east side of our county to the Trinity Alps on the southwest, to
the Oregon border on the north. Included in our responsibility are five national
forests, four major wilderness areas and a large number of lakes and wild and
scenic rivers. More than 65% of the county’s 6,315 square miles is national
forest land. Our county is actually larger, geographically, than three states.
The Enforcement Division has approximately 95 employees who work various law
enforcement functions throughout Siskiyou County. The Enforcement Division
provides law enforcement services to the unincorporated area in Siskiyou County
as well as six contract cities including four who have full law enforcement
services.
The headquarters for the division is located
in Yreka and operates through a decentralized patrol plan. There are substations
in Dunsmuir, Mount Shasta, Etna, Happy Camp, Dorris, and Montague. The division
is assigned one captain, 2 lieutenants, 10 sergeants, 46 deputies, 8 reserve
deputies, 9 dispatchers, 2 part time deputies and 5 water safety deputies.
The Enforcement Division Commander is Captain
Mike Murphy. He has more than 25 years with the department and has been the
division commander since 1994. He was previously the Custody Division Commander.
The division is comprised of 2 major Commands, Operations and Services.
The Operations Commander, Lieutenant Jim
Betts, has the responsibility for the uniformed patrol function and contract
city enforcement. Lieutenant Betts has more than 24 years with the department
and was promoted to his assignment during 2003. He was previously a Patrol
Sergeant in Yreka. The Services Commander has the responsibility for
investigations, records, civil and all other services. The Services Commander
position is currently vacant. Due to the vacancy of the Services Commander,
Captain Murphy and Lieutenant Betts have assumed those duties.
Due to various budget cuts over the past two
budget cycles, the Sheriff’s Department has been cut a substantial amount of
funding. Because of this the Undersheriff position has been left vacant since
November 2003, the Services Commander Lieutenant position has been left vacant
since May 2004, a Patrol Sergeant position has been left vacant since December
2003 and three deputy sheriff patrol positions have been left vacant since
January 2004. Additionally, a supervisory Criminal Records Technician has been
left vacant since May 2003. These seven positions being left vacant represent
more than $600,000 in savings to the citizens of the county. Even though the
Sheriff’s Department badly needs these seven positions, it has been the goal of
Sheriff Riggins to do more with less.
In the spirit of doing more with less, the
Sheriff has taken cuts to the more high paying positions in an effort to keep as
many deputies on the street as possible. Even though the department is down six
total sworn positions and one administrative position, there are currently more
deputy sheriffs working on the street, in patrol, than there has ever been in
Siskiyou County. The Undersheriff’s responsibilities have been divided up
between Sheriff Riggins and his commanders. The overall budget for the division
is just under $9 million. This includes virtually 2/3rds of the department’s
personnel and every responsibility in the department other than the county jail
and the courts.
The philosophy, operations and deployment of
the Sheriff’s Department Enforcement Division is based on the Sheriff’s CORE
program. CORE stands for Community Oriented Resident Enforcement. The deputies
are hired with community oriented, problem solving skills and assigned out to
resident areas to foster community involvement and support. Each deputy is
recruited, hired and trained with this philosophy in mind.
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