State to Review Sheriffs’ Practice of Issuing Honorary Badges

The state attorney general’s office will review the practice by some top Southern California law enforcement officials of issuing honorary badges and identification cards to political supporters and other members of the public, authorities said Monday.

Riverside County Dist. Atty. Grover Trask requested the state inquiry saying that a “clarification of the law is necessary” because of the controversy the badge programs had created statewide.

Trask made the request after determining that Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle did nothing illegal when in 2003 he issued badges to his “Executive Council,” a volunteer, homeland-security citizens advisory group. Still, Trask said, the practice invited abuse.

“At the very least, we need some set, statewide guidelines: What the badge must look like, how and when it can be issued, and a list of who has them,” Trask said. “We need to ask if the time has come to do away with the practice of honorary badges. My own opinion is, I don’t think you need them.”

State law prohibits anyone from issuing badges to the public that could be mistaken for genuine law enforcement badges.

Gary Schons, senior assistant attorney general, said his office would review the matter and report to law enforcement departments throughout the state.

Doyle “won’t have a problem” with the attorney general’s review, said Riverside County Undersheriff Neil Lingle.

“We haven’t done anything unlawful, unethical or unprecedented,” Lingle said.

In 2003, Doyle authorized the firm that makes his department’s badges to make badges for his “Executive Council.” Doyle presented them to 17 members who had donated a total of more than $54,000 to his campaign, elections records and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times showed.

The group was directed by Glendora tire salesman Gary Nalbandian, who also was a member of citizen advisory committees for San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Michael Ramos and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

“We wholeheartedly concur with [Trask’s] analysis and would welcome a review by the attorney general’s office,” said Susan Mickey, a San Bernardino County district attorney’s spokeswoman.

Baca last week ordered Nalbandian to collect the photo identification cards that members of Baca’s “Homeland Security Support Unit” received.

Baca’s request came after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called for an investigation into whether he had violated county law by issuing the cards.

Trask determined that the badges issued by Doyle were “different enough” from authentic law enforcement badges and said the badges were not misused in Riverside County.

A 1985 attorney general’s opinion allows for civilian identification badges “when the badge is not similar in nature ... from those of the authorized peace officers.”

Trask is urging Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer to establish firm “guidelines, policies, oversights” that clearly spell out who can and can’t have a badge.

In Orange County, Sheriff Michael S. Carona has come under sharp attack in the past year for doling out badges and ID cards to a special category of reserves who have no police powers.

Carona has maintained that these reserves present no public safety risk and provide valuable services at no cost.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote today on a proposed county ordinance that would prohibit badges from being issued to “any civilian in exchange for receiving any political financial contributions or endorsements.”

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Times staff writers Christine Hanley and Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report.