Opinion: Why John Hemmerling is the clear choice for San Diego County sheriff [Opinion]
. Dozens of people might still be alive had Gore truly acknowledged and addressed systemic failures.
By year’s end, that challenge will fall to one of three major candidates seeking the job Gore slunk away from on the day the state audit dropped.
Hemmerling commanded a battalion that processed 6,000-plus detainees — or more than the pre-pandemic population of San Diego County’s jails — without incident in Iraq. He spent eight-plus years as a beat cop in Mid-City and nearly eight as legal adviser to the chief of the San Diego Police Department. As chief criminal prosecutor at the City Attorney’s Office, he’d bring an outsider’s perspective.
For those who don’t think an outsider is crucial to reforming county jails, consider this: Despite promises from first Martinez and then acting Sheriff Anthony Ray that a new era was at hand, nine more jail deaths have occurred since Gore’s exit. That’s double the rate of his terrible tenure — and confirms the department has a cultural problem — not just a Gore problem — when it comes to taking basic steps to ensuring inmates leave jail cells alive.
Myers, on the other hand, deserves credit for zeroing in on department management shortcomings years ago when Gore was widely deferred to. Now Myers wants a thorough review of jail practices that extends beyond the audit findings and an immediate adoption of policies that have sharply reduced deaths at jails elsewhere. In a
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