The nation-wide protests about police brutality and the death of young black men have re-focused attention on the issue of how to improve and refom police departments.
Summit County Sheriff Justin Martinez says he has thought about that even before the current controversies.
Sheriff Martinez said his job is to think constantly about how to improve his department and make it more community-centric.
But he said with funding already tight for the Sheriff’s Office, he doesn’t agree with the calls to “Defund the Police.”
“But to reduce the budget that’s already been reduced quite a bit, and to have less deputies out there—absolutely, I just don’t think we can do that. We run on a shoe-string budget as it is. We run on a shoe-string staff. And a lot of the programs that I’ve implemented—We took the Justice Re-Investment Initiative and turned that into the Drug Court. We turned it into county probation. The Working Inmate program, it saves the county money. These are good for the community. These are good for those that are coming into my correctional facility. I want to see recidivism just drop off.”
He said with fewer deputies, his department would have to be more of a reactive force. And he doesn’t think the community wants that.
Asked about the diversity of the local force, he notes that he himself is Latino. The department includes a Vietnamese officer, his latest hire was an African-American, and two recent promotions were for female officers. He also made a couple of recent hires of county residents.
We asked if his written policies explicitly reject racism. The Sheriff said he can’t put his finger on a specific provision.
“I would have to make an assumption that it is in there somewhere because it’s a national policy that we purchased and that racism bias is addressed in there. But I can’t give you a specific line of where it’s at.”
He added, however, that he doesn’t tolerate racial profiling, quotas, or racist behavior in his office.
The Sheriff said he’s also changed some of the practices in the department.
“When the previous sheriff, a good friend of mine—he used to basically just pick and choose his next supervisors, his next sergeants, his next lieutenants. I’ve changed that, I’ve changed it to the point where I don’t even have anybody in my office involved in that process because I believe there’s too much biases involved—“Hey, you know what, you didn’t give the best presentation, but you’re my buddy, we go out drinking together, I’m gonna give you a better score” I take all of that out of the process, and turn it over to my Sheriff’s Advisory Board and outside personnel to really guide the process for supervisor.”
He added that County Council Members are involved in the last stage of the interview process.
He said he started events like “Coffee With a Cop” and keeps in touch with organizations such as the Park City Community Foundation.
“I sit on the Peace House Board. I sit on the Children’s Justice Center Board, Summit County Domestic Violence. And I try to hear what they hear from their clients when they come into the Peace House, what their needs are. We’ve done everything, all their literature is in English and in Spanish. I have taken my deputies from a hard uniform to a soft uniform. I’ve been on your show and I think you’ve seen me. I’ve been, basically in a golf shirt and an embroidered badge. I wanna take away that fear. I wanna take away that hard presence and soften it and let people know we’re approachable.”
He said he wants his officers to be a positive presence in neighborhoods.
“One, I demand that they stay off the highways and 224, 248. That’s not what we should be patrolling. We should be in the neighborhoods. And my mandate is that when you’re in the neighborhoods, and you see kids out with a lemonade stand, I expect you to stop and talk with them. I expect you to get out and go into the businesses. I really want to make sure that the community knows that we’re not just driving around, that we’re approachable and we are here to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
Summit County Sheriff Justin Martinez.
