With the turn of the calendar page and an election on the horizon, there is no shortage of things to keep an eye on in 2022.
But for me, two issues I will be watching most closely are the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department race and how we as a community continue to respond to the ongoing challenge of the pandemic.
As I wrote last month, there has been no shortage of incidents and issues that have damaged trust between the law enforcement and some members of our community, including longstanding issues such as racial disparities in the department’s policing and safety concerns in our county jails.
Report after report, including those by the Union-Tribune and one commissioned by the department, have found that people of color are stopped, searched and subjected to force at higher rates than their White counterparts, even when accounting for factors like crime rates and poverty. But still, there has been reluctance to acknowledge that bias among deputies may be part of the issue.
Reporters Jeff McDonald and Kelly Davis have also regularly chronicled the disturbing mortality rate in our county jails, an issue which has created a nightmare for far too many San Diego families and proven costly for residents whose county government has had to pay out millions of dollars in lawsuits.
For example, the U-T’s Dying Behind Bars series revealed that at least 140 people died in San Diego County jails between 2009 and 2019, and in 2021 we saw 18 more people die in county custody. Last year the county also paid out at least $15 million in settlements and lawsuits stemming from five jail-related cases.
This all leads to why I am fascinated by what this next year looks like for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, because in the face of heavy problems there are opportunities for significant change — and it’s not just because of the election.
This will be Sheriff Bill Gore’s final year in office, which leaves the June 7 primary as the first time in more than 30 years an incumbent sheriff is absent from the ballot.
It will be interesting to see what approach the four candidates vying to replace him — Undersheriff Kelly Martinez, retired sheriff’s Cmdr. Dave Myers, Deputy San Diego City Attorney John Hemmerling and sheriff’s Deputy Ken Newsom — take with some of these pressing issues. But it also will be noteworthy seeing how San Diegans react to their pitches.
There was a lot of big talk about racial justice and law enforcement reform following the in-custody murder of George Floyd, but law enforcement and local government follow-through on those plans has been hit or miss. With the sheriff’s election though, we may get a better feel for how sincerely the public cares about addressing some of those issues because San Diegans will be able to react at the ballot box.
My fascination with the department isn’t just about the election. This is Gore’s final year. With such a long career of public service coming to a close, I would bet that there are are some things he’d still like to accomplish before his ride off into the sunset.
Because he no longer faces a re-election campaign, he may feel a certain freedom and he may feel extra motivated, given the finite amount of time at his disposal, to get some final initiatives off the ground that he’s particularly passionate about.
He could get the ball rolling on some of the trust issues as it relates to racial disparities, for example. I’m not sure he could make a huge dent given the time, but really pushing things like frequent, open community meetings in parts of the county where residents may have anxieties might make a good start.
I don’t know if Gore would take that approach, or what his priorities or passion projects ultimately are, but either way how he chooses to spend his final days in office should be well worth watching, given they could some impact on our community.
COVID Year 3. The year of dread
While I’m looking forward to watching how the next year shakes out for our sheriff’s department, I’m dreading watching what’s next for COVID, and that’s not necessarily because of the virus itself.
The fact that more than 826,000 people in the U.S. have already died from the virus, including 4,461 San Diegans, is a tragedy I still don’t think some of us have fully grasped. That loss of life is coupled with significant unemployment, mental health issues, educational loss, and behavioral challenges among young people.
What I dread though, as it relates to COVID Year 3, is how we will all respond to it.
It seems pretty clear that COVID isn’t going to disappear, and there are signs we are battling COVID fatigue, even those who have taken this pandemic seriously from the jump. If our resolve is wavering or inconsistent, I’m losing hope that we will contain this virus or even comfortably coexist with it.
For example, something as simple as getting everyone who previously got vaccinated to receive a booster shot may prove a greater obstacle than anticipated.
I think we’ve largely failed the test of community, because a contagion and an existential threat such as the one we’ve faced should have rallied us together regardless of political affiliation, race, religion, occupation or age.
That simply hasn’t happened — not enough.
We have fought about damn near everything related to the pandemic, and certainly the politicization of the issue, the massive spread of misinformation and disinformation, and the American tendency to focus on the individual instead of the collective have all contributed to that failure.
In addition to that, there’s something darker lurking in how some have responded to COVID.
There are some in our community who feel emboldened now to threaten just about anyone — be it a county supervisor, a school board member, a public health official, or a retail worker — who asks them to wear a mask. These people may be a vocal minority, but their threat of violence could very well be actualized.
We all need to take a beat and try and temper our emotions, because if we let our divisiveness, fatigue and anger get the best of us, we’ll be back here a year from now, staring down at another uncertain cycle of COVID, Year 4.
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January 04, 2022 at 08:00PM
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Column: 2022 will be a lively year for the sheriff's department, maybe not for COVID - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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