(KRON) — The Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram announced he will not require his deputies to interview with the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach (IOLERO), citing constitutional law and labor rights. Engram’s statement became public a day after sealed court documents were mistakenly released to the media by sheriff’s deputies union representatives.
The documents came out in an email alleging IOLERO’s abuse of power, claiming they leaked sensitive and confidential information to a reporter from the Press Democrat. The deputies union representatives say that the oversight committee is lying, shaming, and colluding against the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
The IOLERO, an independent civilian police oversight agency, was established by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in 2016 to strengthen the relationship between the Sheriff’s Office and the public after the death of Andy Lopez. Voters in Sonoma County passed Measure P in 2020 which expanded the reach of IOLERO’s duties and powers in an attempt to grow accountability, responsibility and community trust in the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. This granted the oversight committee the ability to interview Sheriff’s Deputies, until now.
Critics of Sheriff Engram’s statement view this as a pushback on accountability. Around 300 comments responded to the statement published on the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Facebook page, some in support and some against.
One user wrote in support of the oversight, “Accountability is not unconstitutional. Transparency will uphold the law, on all sides.” Other users chimed in support of the Sheriff’s decision, stating, “ Law enforcement already has enormous oversight from within.”
Engram defended this action, stating that the decision not to mandate deputies to interview is, “not a rejection of accountability and oversight, it is a commitment to protecting constitutional rights, following court rulings, and ensuring that any system of oversight is built to last.” Critics view this decision as a rejection of oversight and accountability, seeing that one of IOLERO’s functions is to review complaints against the Sheriff’s Office.
In an interview with KRON4 News, IOLERO’s Director John Alden responded to the discussion, stating, “In IOLERO we are all about transparency and accountability, so if anyone wants another agency like the state bar to look at our work, we invite that.”
Alden went on to say, “We are using the same best practices in accountability that are used throughout the state in these kinds of interviews and I think the only reason that folks with the Deputy Sheriff’s Association are having difficulty with that is that the Sheriff’s office itself has never used these kinds of practices when deputies kill someone in the line of duty.”
The Sheriff’s office pointed out several legal and constitutional grounds for their decision, including the Fifth Amendment.
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