Statement on analysis of department practices

As a leader in law enforcement, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department holds itself to the highest of standards when enforcing the law. In order to ensure accountability, the Sheriff's Department continually evaluates how we provide law enforcement services by analyzing our data and sharing this information with the public on our website, http://www.sdsheriff.net.

Recent outside entity efforts to "scorecard" the Sheriff's Department on its data, conduct and policies have circulated online. Surface level review of such reports indicate lack of context, inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

In early 2019, the Sheriff's Department sought a credible, third-party entity, the Center for Policing Equity, to analyze our operational data, data collected under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act and to survey Sheriff personnel. CPE will not only provide an analysis of this data but will make recommendations on department practices and police/community relations based on any identified barriers or issues.

The Center for Policing Equity is a research center based at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The nonprofit looks at data surrounding police interactions with the community with the goal of reducing any lack of equality.

The Sheriff's Department wants to convey to our community that we continually strive to be the best in our profession, and one facet of that is to always look for ways to improve and ensure we operate fairly and justly. We look forward to the findings that CPE will be bringing to our attention later this year.

Lt. Ricardo Lopez

Media Relations Director