Episode 23 - Law Enforcement in Rural California, An Interview with Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growdon

In this episode of Hometown California, RCRC Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs, Paul Smith, speaks with Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growdon about the realities of being a peace officer in rural California.  In the small and remote County of Lassen, Sheriff Growdon serves as both Sheriff and Coroner, as do many of his counterparts in other rural areas of the State.  Home to two state prisons, one federal prison, and a military base, Lassen County has some unique law enforcement challenges.
 
Hear how law enforcement in a rural county-- and particularly in a very, very rural county-- is different than other areas of the State.  Sheriff Growdon discusses the importance of mutual aid and explains how customer service and community assistance are keys for successful crime prevention.  Listen as Sheriff Growdon talks about the challenges of some state mandates and how COVID-19 has impacted law enforcement and community support in Lassen County during the pandemic.

Transcript

INTRO: [00:00:00] 
Welcome to Hometown California, a production of the Rural County Representatives of California, advocating for California's rural counties for nearly 50 years. Hometown California tells the rural story through the eyes of those who live, work, and play in the rural communities of the Golden State. 

PAUL: [00:00:26] 
This is Hometown California. I'm your host, Paul Smith. Joining me today is Lassen County Sheriff, Dean Growdon. We thought we'd spend a little bit of time with Sheriff Growdon and the issues of law enforcement as they continue to purvey all of rural California in terms of delivering services and doing the job that our service members do on an hourly basis, daily basis, weekly basis-- however you want to classify it-- in terms of just building that community and that community fabric in our rural areas. So welcome, Dean. 

DEAN: [00:00:58]
Well, thank you, Paul. Appreciate it. 

PAUL: [00:00:59]
Yeah, glad you're here. Why don't we start with you telling a little bit about yourself, your background, who you are, how you became interested in law enforcement, how you became sheriff, and just kind of what's going on being a sheriff in rural Lassen County. And, maybe talk about Lassen County. I'm aware of it, but a lot of our listeners may not even know where it is and what its size and what its dynamics are. So take it away, Sheriff. 

DEAN: [00:01:22]
OK, Paul, thank you. So I've been sheriff of Larssen County for 10 years, work for the sheriff's office for 27 years. 

 I've worked most assignments in the agency, started out as a correctional deputy, worked my way up to assistant sheriff and then decided to run for sheriff when the position became available. Before law enforcement, did part time work. But, I was studying criminal justice classes at Shasta College. Actually, I was studying to be an auto mechanic. And then I took my first administration of justice class. And since that time I was hooked. Since that time I continued with my education. I received my graduate degree from University of Nevada, Reno, a few years ago. But I'm real passionate about public safety as a whole and public service. Lassen County, it's a very rural county in northeastern California. It borders, Nevada. I describe it as being between Reno, Nevada and Redding, California so people have a frame of reference, but it's a very rural area. But I did grow up there. You know, it's my home county. My hometown of Westwood is in Lassen County. And it's really important for me to be able to provide the service that the sheriff does and keeping the people in that community safe. You know, some of the advantages of our county-- it is really remote, we don't have a lot of services. There are a number of challenges, but there's a ton of outdoor opportunity, a great deal of publicly owned land. So a lot of outdoor recreational opportunities, if that's what you like. 

PAUL: [00:02:52] 
Yeah, it's a beautiful place for those that have not been there. I was up there earlier this year-- I should say, last year-- touring Lassen Volcanic National Park, which splits between a little bit of Tehama County, a little bit of Shasta County, and of course, Lassen. But the whole area is just a beautiful place. And it's very small. About 20000 residents, but mainly a significant incarcerated population. Maybe kinda speak to that. You have some prisons up there, both state and federal, and kind of how that dynamic works and what is a really small county. 

DEAN: [00:03:24] 
Yeah, we do. We have two state prisons and one federal prison and a military base. We have about twelve thousand inmates between all those prisons in the county. And like you said, the unincarcerated population is just over twenty thousand and we have over 4000 square miles. But having a prison in your county, it presents some challenges. Especially with COVID, it's really presented some unique challenges. The good thing is it provides a lot of stable jobs for residents of our county. But we do, because of our locality to Reno, Nevada, a lot of the people that work at those facilities and on the military base do live in Nevada and commute into our county each workday. So it's a somewhat unique environment. 

PAUL: [00:04:10]
Yeah, I could I could see where there's some dynamics there. Tell us about being sheriff in a rural county in a very, very rural county. Kind of, what your day to day activities are and perhaps how law enforcement might be different in a rural county, and how it could be different in a really rural county. 

DEAN: [00:04:29] 
Yeah, so. So I serve as the Sheriff and Corner and Larsen County. Many of the sheriffs around the state also serve as corner. What most people think of when they think of the sheriff's offices, we have obviously our patrol operations and those are the deputies out on the street, you know, working to keep the community safe, you know, enforce the laws as necessary, but really working on just the overall public safety. We have jail operations. And jails have been more difficult to operate in recent years. The jails are really challenging, especially for small rural counties. We provide court security for the courts. We have a civil division that handles and serves a number of different types of civil process. We conduct search and rescue operations. And in a rural environment like ours, there's a pretty big draw on the search and rescue front. And for the most part, we handle that with our patrol personnel and and as a secondary support, we have volunteers that will help out with search and rescue. And then we have a 911 dispatch center that we operate that handles all the landline 911 calls and most of the mobile 911 calls in the county. You know, those are the primary operations. So you can tell it's pretty diverse. We have just under 100 employees in the sheriff's office. Of those, about 22 are patrol deputies. And then from there, they fill in the various missions of the office. Now, in a rural area like ours, it's you know, we have a limited deputy coverage. So we really have to triage calls for service. And as you could imagine, it's boom or bust. Either there's nothing going on or we're just completely overwhelmed. So we just do the best we can in deploying those deputies. And we really focus on customer service, because when you're working in those remote areas and you're by yourself, you know, nothing's more important than having the community's support. And we really rely on our communication skills and things to gain compliance with people. And it, overall that focus on customer service has been really beneficial to our department in many ways, but primarily in, you know, improving the relationship with the community. 

PAUL: [00:06:44] 
Now, I assume you probably do not have 24 hour patrol. 

DEAN: [00:06:47]
Well, we didn't until COVID. And then we transitioned to a 24 hour patrol. But what it did is we have fewer deputies per shift. During those normal service hours, it's increased the response time to calls for service. But in the end, it's shown that the benefits outweigh the negatives of being able to do it or the hardships associated with covering 24 hour patrol. Because in the past those hours that aren't normally covered, you'd have deputies on standby time, be paying standby time and have to call them out from home to respond to a call. So it's nice having deputies in the field 24 hours a day, even if it's fewer on the streets at one point in time. 

PAUL: [00:07:28]
I know we're going to get into the mutual aid here in a minute. Does the CHP help you out? I believe there's a CHP office up there near Susanville. Does that help having them in some type of coverage and assistance? 

DEAN: [00:07:40]
Yes. All the law enforcement agencies in our county work closely-- whether it be CHP, even U.S. Forest Service, law enforcement, BLM Rangers-- everyone works really closely together just because we have to. And then you mentioned mutual aid, but just on a day to day basis, some of those communities that border neighboring counties or we have some towns where some addresses are in Lassen and some addresses in that same town are in, you know, Modoc or Shasta. In those areas where we immediately border each other, we help each other out all the time. 

PAUL: [00:08:13]
Yeah, you would need to with Lassen being not only not very well populated, it's a huge landmass. And so there's a lot to cover, a lot of things going on. So, how's the relationship with the Board of Supervisors in Lassen? Because there always seems to be that natural tension between the board and the sheriff. One has the power of the purse, yet the sheriff is very well known and obviously very visible in the community. 

DEAN: [00:08:37]
Well, I think I have a really strong relationship with our Board of Supervisors. I think part of that comes from my 27 years with the sheriff's office and working my way through the ranks and working on budget development, going to the board well before I was ever sheriff. I think a lot of that helped quite a bit when I became sheriff. Just understanding the county systems and financial policies, having a strong understanding has really helped, I believe. And then, like any relationship, the most important thing you have to have is that trust between parties. And what I do, like with the board you mentioned, you know, they control the purse strings. What I strive to do is only ask for something if I really need it and there's no other option. So if we're faced with the challenge within the sheriff's office, we'll try to do whatever we can. And the board knows I mean, I've had good success in seeking grants or other funding to help, you know, augment sheriff's office operation. I think that helps. But having that trust, they know I'm not going to come to them asking for something unless I really need it. And then I try, you know, at an operational level to keep them informed of significant events occurring in the county. Sometimes that happens by way of the County Administrative Officer rather than directly. But, you know, try to keep them informed, you know, respect that position as the local legislative body. And I think that has really helped. And we've had a really positive working relationship in our county. 

PAUL: [00:10:02]
Yeah. Just kind of for my own curiosity. Just to again highlight how rural Lassen is, how many homicides do you average a year or how many homicides do you average over a decade? 

DEAN: [00:10:12]
Overall, on average, probably one to two a year within the unincarcerated population. The incarcerated population, there's multiple per year. And on those the  prison investigations units and the DA's office lead those on the criminal side, but we do end up working those from the coroner's side. So there's some impact there. But yeah, the homicide rate or murder rate is pretty low in our county, but we do have high amount of, you know, domestic violence, opioid abuse. So we do have quite a few violent crimes we respond to. 

PAUL: [00:10:47] 
Yeah, yeah. So I understand you are very active in the California State Sheriffs Association, an association that's very close to RCRC. We work hand-in-glove where we can on law enforcement issues, funding for law enforcement issues more importantly. Tell us about your role there and what's going on in the State Sheriffs Association. 

DEAN: [00:11:07] 
So I'm currently serving as the First Vice President of the California State Sheriffs Association. I also serve as the chair of the Corrections and Detention's Committee because of my background in corrections. I worked in our jail system at multiple levels. Plus, at one point we had a state contract facility where we housed state inmates under contract. Looks like in June now, I'll become the President of CSSA. And, on my path to becoming First Vice President, I've moved through all the different chairs where you have a variety of responsibilities. But overall, the intent is to support association business. And the primary role of the association is to give the sheriffs, you know, one single effective voice in the state. I think we've been pretty effective in a lot of areas. But, it also gives us the opportunity to network. Just like any other group, the sheriffs have different strengths, different experiences and knowledge. And when we're able to get together and share that, it can be very beneficial. And I know just in our region we have some great sheriffs up there. We call upon each other oftentimes just to ask questions or get advice on whatever we're facing at that point in time. 

PAUL: [00:12:21] 
You indicated that your success with your board in Larssen County, a lot of it centers on having that trust relationship. As a senior member of the State Sheriffs Association, I assume you have the ability to share that with other sheriffs, particularly newly elected sheriffs, coming into office and advising and counsel them. You really need to build that relationship with your board and try to cultivate it. 

DEAN: [00:12:43]
Every election cycle we host new sheriffs training and we teach on different topics. I primarily teach on corrections itself. But that is something that we do reinforce is the importance of those relationships, obviously, with the board, but also other county partners and agencies. 

PAUL: [00:13:00]
Yeah, I imagine your district attorney and. 

DEAN: [00:13:02]
Yeah, probation chiefs and health and social services departments, I mean, across the board, you have to have those good relationships. 

PAUL: [00:13:09]
Yeah, it's very important. So you are also on the Board of State and Community Corrections, affectionately known here in the Sacramento world as the BSCC. Maybe tell listeners about what that is and what your role in it is. 

DEAN: [00:13:23]
So it's been named many things. It was the Board of Corrections for a long time and then it was the Correction Standards Authority. Now it's the Board of State and Community Corrections. But I was originally appointed by Governor Brown when it was the Corrections Standards Authority back in 2011. I was since reappointed three additional times and I was just reappointed by Governor Newsom. But the BSCC, they oversee adult and juvenile correctional facilities in the state as well as probation departments. So they have two primary areas. One is the oversight of the facilities where they establish minimum standards, both facility plant standards and also operational standards. And then they audit those correctional facilities, give reports back to the counties, and they really try to work with the facility managers to give them advice on how they can maintain compliance if they are out of compliance. And then they also establish a minimum training standards. And that's through the standards and training for corrections, which falls underneath that umbrella. And then they work with presenters and agencies again to try to help them gain compliance with training. 

PAUL: [00:14:35]
So the BSCC, as you mentioned, has a role in looking at detention facilities. My understanding is Lassen has a very old jail and there's been several attempts to try to modernize that jail. Obviously, BSCC would have a say in that, particularly if state dollars are involved. Maybe talk a little bit about the experience there. 

DEAN: [00:14:53]
Yeah, so I did, I chaired three different jail expansion executive steering committees. And our county, in one of the cycles that I didn't participate in, was awarded some money to remodel the jail. The hard part is it was lease revenue bond financing, which makes the process very challenging. And our county just didn't have the money to do all the upfront work to move the project forward. So right now, we you know, we do have an older facility, it was built in the late 80s. Like I mentioned earlier, we did at one point hold state inmates in part of it. So we had space to expand into, but not necessarily the right kind of space. We have large dormitories rather than segregated housing. But what we've done locally is made a commitment to trying to improve that facility. We just put a new roof on it and we've got some more work to do with the infrastructure. But ultimately, that money we were awarded by the state, we had to turn back just because the county couldn't afford to move it forward. 

PAUL: [00:15:56]
Yeah, and that's not unique. I mean, I'm aware of a lot of counties, particularly small counties, where either the upfront costs to match the state or to meet the state's guidelines just is unattainable. Or you can get the money, you can build it, but you have to demonstrate to the state that you can operate it at a capacity and that usually the costs of personnel, when you turn the keys over to the county to run it on a daily basis, those costs go up. And again, state mandates can't be met. Which brings us back into that conversation about the mutual aid system. You alluded to the fact that it's all-hands-on-deck in Lassen County and many rural areas where you have the CHP, you have Forest Service, et cetera. Where does it come in, where Lassen is a donor to other counties? Maybe not just their neighboring counties, but obviously for a mutual aid system to work, you are a receiver and you're a donor at various times. Maybe talk about when Lassen County personnel go assist somebody else that may not be around the corner. 

DEAN: [00:16:53]
Yeah, we've helped all over the state over the last couple of years for fires, for civil unrest. Been to San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento recently, during the elections, down to Butte County multiple times on fires, the issue with the Oroville Dam. But really, so mutual aid really does start at the local level. Each county is its own operational area and the sheriff serves on the law enforcement side as that coordinator, you know, within that operational area. So at its lowest level, when events happen inside the county, you try to use what's available within the county first. And we did talk about the prisons, too, and that's one that I didn't mention. They help us out quite a bit. We had large fires in our county this summer and at one point, about half of our population in the county was under some sort of evacuation order. So we had to secure large areas within our county, you know, provide security. So the prisons helped out, too. If you can't meet the need within your operational area, then you reach out to the region. And we're in region three up in Lassen County. And, Shasta County sheriff serves as the coordinator in our region. And then so if we need mutual aid, we'll reach out to them. We'll specify what it is we need. And we did request mutual aid from out of the area once last year for about a three day period. And then if the need exceeds the region's capability, then they'll reach out to other regions. That's what you see when we end up going down to, you know, San Francisco, Sacramento and those areas. As those regions have exceeded their capabilities or their resources- staff resources- then they'll reach out to other regions for help. 

PAUL: [00:18:31]
What is, Nevada and Washoe County- what role do they play? Are they able to assist you as well? 

DEAN: [00:18:37]
Well, they'll help with search and rescue. There is a provision in the law for CHP to have a mutual aid agreement with Nevada Highway Patrol, but there's no provision in the law for sheriffs or other law enforcement agencies to have a similar policy. We tried to get something like that, but that didn't move forward with the legislature. So currently they can help us with search and rescue. They'll help us with aircraft. But that's about it. 

PAUL: [00:19:05]
Yeah, it's difficult. Speaking of difficulties, it's a challenging time to be in law enforcement. Obviously, the civil unrest and the originations of the civil unrest has kind of put, in my opinion, law enforcement on the back foot. Obviously tragic events of George Floyds death and the way that happened is having a lot of people kind of reexamine the role of law enforcement where it's appropriate. Maybe share your thoughts and comments, not necessarily on the George Floyd, and obviously the issues of racial disparity, but just rebuilding that trust with communities so that they understand that law enforcement isn't just about punishing criminals. It does so much more. 

DEAN: [00:19:45]
It is so much more. And really ,what we really try to focus on in our county and what I really try to impress upon my deputies is that serving as the peace officer, people tend to really focus on the law enforcement piece and think that our only interest is identifying offenders and taking them to jail. But, the reality is, most of the calls for service that we respond to don't involve a violation of the law. There's some kind of dispute that's growing among some people or there's something going on that's causing somebody some concern. And the vast majority of these, we respond to those, we work with the community, we problem solve and no one ever goes to jail. And when people talk about crime prevention, that's the the most obvious type of crime prevention that we do is actually responding to calls for service before they get to the level where crime is being committed. But I think the key is that. It's focusing on being a peace officer, focusing on customer service, providing the community help as much as possible. And then, as the situation dictates, then we may have to make an arrest. But that's not the goal. The goal isn't just to arrest people. And I think that there's different cultures of different law enforcement agencies. But I think as a whole, that's one of the most important things we could do in law enforcement, is just focus on the peace officer portion of it rather than the arrest portion of it. 

PAUL: [00:21:07]
So it sounds like you've got a good handle on this, but yet the legislature is proposing, again, like they did last year, some new mandates for lack of a better term-- sensitivity training, cultural awareness issues, obviously changing the use of force practices. And then we even have a bill that will be debated here shortly in the legislature about higher minimum qualifications, education degrees, bachelor's degrees, a minimum age. What are your thoughts on that approach? Do you see that as really moving the needle or it's really going to be about how sheriffs set the priority in their departments, about addressing all of these things? 

DEAN: [00:21:45]
Specific to the education part or all of the all of it? 

PAUL: [00:21:47]
Yeah, all of the above. 

DEAN: [00:21:48]
Well, you know, it is challenging. We already have a lot of training. I mean, our law enforcement are really well trained. So it is tough. It's hard to meet the the mandates we already have. I mean, obviously, we'd never want to say no to training, but maintaining all those training standards while also maintaining the services to the community, that can be challenging. But at the same time, I don't think we can protect the status quo either. I think we have to acknowledge that there's always room for improvement. And it would be nice if we had more interaction with the legislature and they understood better some of the challenges we do face. Unfortunately, it feels like it's in us versus them right now and it really doesn't need to be. On the issue of the education, you know, I'd love to see our people seek higher education. But the problem is, if you make that a baseline requirement, you're going to be cutting a lot of potential candidates out immediately. And it is already very, very difficult to hire law enforcement personnel almost statewide, if not statewide. You're going to have agencies struggling to hire people. So I think on the education front, I think there is some benefit from it. You know, I have my graduate degree and I know that it really did help me sort of broaden my view of things. So I think after people get into the law enforcement field, I think the way to get more education is after they're hired, provide incentives, provide, you know, assistance in completing that education. I think that's the avenue to go rather than require it in advance. 

PAUL: [00:23:23]
And a lot of those education standards cost money and impact the bottom line as you become more and more professional. Not to say that you aren't now, but more an additional professional standards. How do you manage a department in a Lassen County from a financial standpoint? Obviously, you've got to do more with less. How do you get through that every day? 

DEAN: [00:23:42]
That's a big challenge. In our county we don't, you know, we don't see the boom and the bust that some of the larger counties do. Our finances tend to be more stable, but we don't see the growth and costs are outpacing growth. So it presents hardships. Probably right now the jails are the best example of that. There's a lot of attention given to the jails related to medical, mental health, all kinds of factors. And with public safety realignment, we've really made a concerted effort to provide more services to the offenders, more alternatives to incarceration and so on. All those things cost money. And so those costs just keep going up. And I really have a strong fear that in the coming years, those small rural counties are going to start having, you know, extreme difficulties and have to prioritize services. And I know our county is not far from that. Lassen County is, you know, we've been deficit spending for a number of years now, and that's going to come to an end when all those one time monies dry up. 

PAUL: [00:24:46]
Yeah, very difficult. Last question for you, Sheriff, and that is COVID. How is it going in Lassen? How is it with your department? Are you experiencing a lot of deputy caseloads with respect to COVID and causing lapses in the services you provide? Just the community, how they're responding to COVID. Obviously, a lot of rural counties over the last six or seven months have not traditionally had the caseload problems that urban areas have because of the nature of the pandemic. Maybe you can speak to what's going on-- both on a personal level with your department, as well as kind of a macro level on how Lassen County is approaching it. 

DEAN: [00:25:20]
So Lassen County is unique and partially because of the prisons, you know. So when the first lockdown occurred, some counties were making different types of political statements and I understood that our county was at high risk of having a significant outbreak because of the prisons. When you've got that many people living in that small space, obviously it increases the odds of that pandemic spreading. Our County Administrative Officer asked me to serve in a unified command position with our Health and Social Services Director. So we established an incident command team and the Health and Social Services Director and I were the incident commanders overall. So we came up with a plan that covered the whole county, had a lot of interaction with the prisons, and we did a lot of work in advance so we were prepared. And sure enough, the pandemic, it really hit our county hard when so many inmates were transferred into California Correctional Center from San Quentin after their outbreak. And so we had a huge outbreak at that prison. And, of course, it spread from the prison to the staff to the community. And we had good, strong plans and contingencies in place. And that really helped us when that happened, you know. And since then, we've seen three outbreaks amongst those two state prisons and they're all high infection rates. And then they've dropped off. Each time when they have a wave in the prison it spread in the community. But overall, that partnership with CDC, our partnership with our public health and health and social services agencies, has really helped out. For my operations, we worked, obviously, running the jail. That's an area where we really wanted to keep it out of the jail, wanted to protect the offender population that we;re housing as well as staff. You know, we're struggling to hire people in our own jail. So we couldn't afford to have a bunch out at any one point in time for quarantine or isolation. So we had strong policies put in place. We used our juvenile hall that's no longer used for juveniles as a reception center for a period of time. So we could quarantine all the new bookings. It impacted the patrol operations. We asked the deputies to really reduce the amount of proactive work they were doing just to ensure that we were only bringing the people to jail that really needed to be there. And most jurisdictions took that type of action. Obviously, we train people up, fitted people for N-95 masks and PPE. We changed our procedures related to coroner's cases. So just across the board we made a number of changes just to help protect our staff, help protect the inmates that are in our custody. And overall, it's worked out pretty good. We've had some staff under quarantine and isolation orders, but we've been able to maintain our core services, you know, throughout this pandemic. 

PAUL: [00:28:12]
Yeah, really challenging. Challenging all the way around as I look at law enforcement in rural areas. You have, again, the COVID-19, lack of resources, the notion that most of these communities have not been hit as hard or should not have been hit as hard as opposed to urbanized areas. And you're dealing with the politics of that. And then, of course, just the times we live in. Any last closing thoughts for our listeners before we let you get back up to Lassen County and do that most important work? 

DEAN: [00:28:42]
You know, the last thing I would say is, you know, if you have any questions about your own sheriff's office, I consider reaching out to them, doing a ride along, you know, interact with some of the people. You know, unfortunately, law enforcement is stereotyped or judged just like a lot of other populations. And most of the people, once they come in and learn about our operations, what we're doing, the improvements we're making, the efforts we put in, the attitudes of our people, it can really be eye-opening. And I really try to make a point of doing that with community groups, with our grand jury, whatever the group is, really just try to educate them on what we're doing as an agency. And I think that has been very positive in our community. 

PAUL: [00:29:24]
Yeah, it sounds like it. Thank you again, Sheriff Growdon of Lassen County. Very involved in state efforts as well as doing the work that it takes to be a good sheriff in a rural community. 

OUTRO: [00:29:36]
You've been listening to Hometown California, a production of the Rural County Representatives of California. Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode, and be sure to rate and review this podcast. I'm your host, Paul Smith, and thanks for listening.