Splitting off the coroner’s office from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department isn’t cost effective and there are already measures in place for independent reviews of deaths of jail inmates and those killed by deputies, according to a report to be delivered Tuesday, March 12.
For update, see: Coroner, sheriff’s will be kept together, Riverside County board decides
The report from the county executive office to the Board of Supervisors recommends the department enter arrangements with neighboring counties to investigate jail deaths and deaths involving deputies’ use of force.
The department led by elected Sheriff Chad Bianco is drawing up agreements with San Diego and San Bernardino counties to handle autopsies for those kinds of cases, the report added.
In an emailed statement, Bianco said: “The Riverside County Sheriff’s office was very confident that facts would prevail over special interests and a biased, ignorant media corp. We will continue to provide the most transparent and professional service to our residents.”
He added: “Although we have always worked with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office on coroner investigations and autopsies we deemed a conflict, we will certainly work with the executive office and our surrounding counties to develop a written protocol for all in-custody deaths and deputy-involved shootings.”
Bianco’s department is currently the focus of a state civil rights investigation stemming in part from a spate of jail inmate deaths that have led to a number of lawsuits from the inmates’ families.
Riverside County Supervisor candidate Jose Medina, who has promised to push for greater sheriff oversight, said via email that while the report’s recommendations “are steps in the right direction, I still maintain that the best way to achieve reform is to separate the coroner’s office from the Sheriff’s Department.”
If elected, Medina, who currently is on track to face state Sen. Richard Roth in a November runoff for the 1st District board seat, said he’d support an independent oversight body with subpoena power and an inspector general office “to enable greater transparency and accountability from the Sheriff’s Department by the community.”
The 15-page report by the executive office, which is responsible for the day-to-day management of county government, responds to a request the board, spurred by supervisors Kevin Jeffries and V. Manuel Perez, made in December to explore the feasibility of separating the coroner’s and sheriff’s offices.
Families of those who died in the county’s five jails and criminal justice reform advocates have urged the board to split the coroner from the sheriff. It’s a conflict of interest, they argue, for the coroner to investigate jail and use-of-force deaths when that office falls under the same roof as the Sheriff’s Department.
Bianco opposed separating the offices, saying that calls to do so are “without merit” and stem from “a politically motivated agenda fueled by defunding the police/anti-law enforcement activists.”
The report notes that the offices merged in 1998 amid concerns the coroner’s office was plagued by mismanagement, poor working conditions and poorly trained staff. Today, 48 of California’s 58 counties have combined sheriff’s/coroner’s offices.
There are policies in place to ensure investigations of jail and use-of-force deaths are done independently and transparently, the report found.
These measures include having district attorney investigators respond to those deaths and conduct their own probes and a 2020 agreement in which outside agencies — not the sheriff — investigate use-of-force deaths involving deputies.
California’s attorney general and civil grand juries, groups of citizens sworn in by a judge who investigate public agencies’ inner workings, also have oversight of deaths tied to the sheriff’s department, the report added.
Splitting off the coroner would lead to higher overhead costs that are currently absorbed by the sheriff, and sending unionized employees to a new coroner’s office also would require contract talks with organized labor, the report concludes.
“In short, it was determined that bifurcating offices often increased budgets, bureaucracy, communication challenges, and duplication of efforts, all while decreasing overall effectiveness,” the report read.
Also, having an elected sheriff and an elected coroner couldn’t take place until Bianco’s term ends in January 2029, the report found. The board could create a medical examiner’s office to handle coroner’s duties, but that would have to go before voters for approval, the report added.
Families whose loved ones died in jails have complained about a lack of empathy from the coroner’s office, according to the report, which recommended creating a “family liaison program … to help individuals navigate the process throughout the investigation of their loved one’s death.”
