Deputies Give Duffy’s S.D. Home Extra Protection

San Diego County Sheriff John Duffy requires deputies from the Poway sheriff’s station to respond to all emergency calls at his new Scripps Ranch home, even though the San Diego Police Department provides law enforcement services in that area.

Four sources have told The Times that the practice began with routine patrols by sheriff’s deputies in the San Diego neighborhood when the home was under construction several years ago.

Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Bob Takeshta confirmed Tuesday that deputies--not city police--respond to a security alarm at Duffy’s residence. But he said the practice began only after the sheriff had moved in last year and received threats against himself and his family.

The sources who spoke to The Times, three of them supervisors in the Sheriff’s Department, said that deputies assigned to the sheriff’s station in Poway began driving across jurisdictional boundaries into San Diego after a notice from the Sheriff’s Department’s headquarters was posted in the briefing room of the Poway station several years ago.

The notice advised deputies to “familiarize” themselves with Duffy’s new neighborhood in San Diego, and at least three on-duty deputies said they were given personal inspection tours of the house and property by Duffy.

Although the notice was not signed by the sheriff, the sources said it left the clear impression that Duffy wanted his own deputies--rather than city police--to protect his home.

Under the normal division of public safety responsibilities, deputies work under contract with the city of Poway to provide police protection there, while Duffy’s neighborhood in Scripps Ranch, about a mile from the Poway city limits, comes under the jurisdiction of the San Diego Police Department.

“If the sheriff really wanted to catch a burglar or a criminal, he’d have the city police respond,” said one deputy, adding that he has responded to four false alarms at Duffy’s home.

“They’re closest, but he wants us.”

Jim Bowersox, city manager of Poway, said Tuesday that he learned about the situation only this week, and that he had deep concerns about any “inordinate amount of time” that patrol cars might leave Poway to protect Duffy’s home in San Diego.

“We’d like to see them here as much as possible,” he said. “It’s been stated many times to the County of San Diego that we do not want to see patrol cars go out of Poway any more often than they have to.”

Duffy refused to be interviewed Tuesday about the arrangement for protection of his home.

Takeshta said he was unaware of any situation where sheriff’s deputies in Poway were patrolling Duffy’s home while it was under construction. He also said that Poway deputies do not make routine patrols there today.

However, he confirmed that Duffy’s private residential alarm is rigged to notify the sheriff’s communications unit, rather than the San Diego Police Department.

He said a Sheriff’s Department policy states that, whenever the safety of the sheriff or his executive management team is threatened, the Sheriff’s Department can employ whatever means necessary for protection. And he said Duffy has over the last year received a series of threats.

Earlier this year, Duffy went to court to keep his address from being made public through voter registration records so it would be more difficult for people to find out where he lives.

“Because of those threats, we’d be negligent if we didn’t” respond to alarm calls at Duffy’s home, Takeshta said. “Obviously, the sheriff is a very visible person, as far as name and personal recognition. He’s controversial and not always the most popular individual around.”

Asked why the Sheriff’s Department would want deputies at Duffy’s home rather than regular city police patrols, Takeshta said the Poway station is closer than the city’s Northeast Patrol station, and thus the response times would be quicker. He also said that deputies would be more aware of threats against the sheriff.

“It’s just a more expeditious way of responding to the call, to verify if there’s any potential threat to the sheriff or his immediate family,” Takeshta said.

City police records show an average response time of 8.3 minutes in the Northeast Patrol area.

In contrast, one sheriff’s deputy said that, because Pomerado Road is now closed between Poway and Scripps Ranch, he had to drive 11 miles via Interstate 15 to make an alarm call at Duffy’s home. He said his drive time was almost 30 minutes.

Takeshta said the Sheriff’s Department has gone into the city to provide special protection for other county officials in the past, including Susan Golding, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, when she was threatened at the County Administration Center.

But Golding said Tuesday that sheriff’s deputies have never patrolled or responded to her home, which is in San Diego.

“Would you want the Sheriff’s Department patrolling your house all the time?” she asked. “I wouldn’t. I have the full confidence in the city Police Department, where I live, for my protection.”

San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen said that, if there was a legitimate police emergency at Duffy’s home, the San Diego Police Department--and not the Sheriff’s Department--would have legal responsibility, regardless of which agency was notified first.

Burgreen said that, while all sworn peace officers in the county have the power of arrest anywhere inside the county, mutual aid policies stipulate that officers from outside agencies can provide assistance only when “asked or invited in” by the legal jurisdiction where the crime occurred.

“As a matter of courtesy, you always notify the other police department,” he said. “That’s the normal procedure.”

But he said he was unaware that sheriff’s deputies were driving into San Diego to protect Duffy’s home. Burgreen said he does not allow his officers to patrol outside the city. “We are paid by the citizens of San Diego and responsible to them,” he said.

Burgreen, who lives in La Mesa, said that the La Mesa Police Department has twice responded to his home alarm system.

Asked if he would have preferred calling officers from his own department, Burgreen said: “I have no intention of doing that. I have every confidence in the La Mesa Police Department.”

According to a source who worked as a high-ranking supervisor in the downtown headquarters when Duffy was building his home in Scripps Ranch, sheriff’s deputies in Poway were advised that expensive building materials and other equipment were often left overnight at the construction site.

He said that Duffy wanted the area routinely patrolled.

“That’s when so many thefts can occur,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t exactly secure a location where lumber is dumped off a pallet.

“And I do remember people talking in Poway about them going by there and keeping an eye on it. The word was that, since it (Duffy’s address) was so close to the Poway station, that he wanted patrol cars to come by and be aware of where he was. I guess to protect the property or to protect him, or whatever.”

Three other deputies recall the memo posted in the Poway station.

“I know when it (the house) was being built, that there was a memo to go get yourself acquainted with the area because we would be the primary responders,” said one deputy. “And they wanted us to know for a fact that that was where he lived.”

Three deputies also recalled that Duffy personally showed them around the house.

“I drove out there to try to get to know where it’s at and how to respond, and he showed me around,” said one deputy. “That was about a week before the furniture moved in.”

In Poway, City Manager Bowersox said his city is paying $2.9 million this fiscal year under a contract with the county for law enforcement protection from the Sheriff’s Department. He said the city gets a rebate for each time a patrol car leaves the city for duties not related to public safety in Poway.

Those deductions in the contract do not list specific reasons why the cars left Poway, so Bowersox said it would be impossible to tell exactly how many times sheriff’s deputies have responded to calls at Duffy’s home.

Deputies said an alarm call at Duffy’s home could take a deputy and his patrol car out of service for 40 minutes to an hour.

“It takes you a while,” said one deputy. “Once, his wife was waiting for us when we got there to check the house. And you know you have to do a very thorough search of the interior and the exterior at his place.”