Sheriff Exposes Blind Spot in Response to Grand Jury

On the surface, Sheriff John Duffy’s initial written response to the highly critical San Diego County Grand Jury report on jail management and inmate abuse is full of well-phrased resolve to do better.

” . . . Everyone in the Sheriff’s Department is anxious to correct the inadequacies you have reported, take disciplinary actions where appropriate and move forward.”

” . . . The conduct of the deputies who participated in or covered up for the so-called ‘Rambo Squad’ at the El Cajon Detention Facility is stupid, disgusting and outrageous.”

” . . . I want you to know that I clearly understand that I am directly accountable to the citizens of San Diego County for the conduct of all of my deputies.”

And he promises that “those responsible will be held accountable and dealt with severely.”

All of those comments are welcome acknowledgements of the problems uncovered by the Grand Jury’s review, and we hope that they signal a turnaround in jail supervision.

But Duffy fails to address one of the key criticisms raised in the Grand Jury report: the lack of leadership. Duffy says in his response that he began restoring his “personal leadership over the jails” on March 24 and that he will continue to do so.

But that answer and many others in his written response have a hollow ring.

They sound more like they come from a man who just learned there were problems in his department, not from a man who has been braced with allegations of brutality and lax supervision for a year.

This Grand Jury report was politely worded, but it was more than just an annual job evaluation that pointed out some performance deficiencies.

Rather, the Grand Jury was saying, sometimes directly and other times by implication, that Sheriff John Duffy has not been doing his job.

Like any good appraisal, the Grand Jury report praised where it thought praise was warranted. It complimented Duffy for having good rules and procedures. It acknowledged that the vast majority of deputies who work for Duffy are honest, dedicated law enforcement officials.

But regarding leadership--the essence of the job the sheriff is elected to do--the report was brutally candid:

“A lack of leadership was demonstrated by the failure to initiate a thorough investigation into the present and past operation of the El Cajon jail facility. Instead, leadership chose to focus their attention on the personalities of the complainants while ignoring whether or not there was any substance to the complaints.”

Instead of cleaning house, Duffy was repeatedly defending his operation and attacking his critics. That makes this sudden expression of resolve to improve seem disingenuous.

And that he opted to let the grand jury tell him that he needed to clean house is a strong argument that the Sheriff’s Department and the jails need routine outside review.

That is one of the functions of a county grand jury, and we are glad that this group of 18 citizens took the job so seriously. But, because grand juries turn over every year and have other responsibilities, that may not be enough.

The time has come for the Board of Supervisors to strongly consider establishing some form of continuing civilian review of complaints against the Sheriff’s Department.