Lt. Sean Gerrity, commander of the
Valley Center Sheriff’s Substation, was recently interviewed by
college student John Fawkes. We thought our readers would be interested
in some of his answers to Fawkes’s questions.
This is Part IV in the series.
* * *
Q: What surprised you most about this job when you started it?
A: It is definitely not like it is on television
or in the movies. I typically don’t watch “police shows,”
not even “Cops”(frequently edited for the sake of the
show). They are usually quite unrealistic (for instance, I don’t
run around shooting at people on a weekly basis – in fact, in
28.5 years, I’ve only shot at one person, a dangerous fleeing
felon, and even then I missed!). I was quite pleased to find that
the peace officer selection process truly tends to cull the best,
most honest, idealistic and self-secure people from our society (though
no selection process is perfect). The average peace officer has the
best interests of those he or she serves in mind. For the very largest
majority of us, the authority conferred is a heavy responsibility,
not simply a “power trip” that many would like to believe.
It is very rewarding to properly and judiciously use this authority,
striving always to ethically “do the right thing,” instead
of only “doing things right.”
Q: What external and internal factors influence
the way the Sheriff’s Dept. operates?
A: Excluding politics, I think I addressed this pretty
well above. Take your pick. As to political things, we are less influenced
by the Board of Supervisors than a police agency is influenced by
their City Council. This is because the Sheriff is an elected official,
and answers directly to the people – he cannot be “fired
at will” by the Board of Supervisors or the County’s equivalent
of a City Manager (the Chief Administrative Officer).
A police chief is appointed, answering directly to the City Manager
and, through him or her, the City Council. Thus a police chief is
more likely to bend to the “political whims” of a City
Council (stereotypically, an example would be past things such as
ticket quotas for generating revenue – currently illegal; or
not arresting certain politically influential people – though
now a rare thing in today’s world).
Since the Sheriff is elected, and usually a very experienced peace
officer, he is not as subject to such pressures. Since I have been
here, the rule has always been “quality outweighs quantity”
(traffic tickets, arrests), and absolutely nobody is exempt from arrest,
unless they are exempt legally (e.g., the President in some circumstances,
for instance) or by international treaty (consular officials). The
“balance of power” the Board of Supervisors does have
over the Sheriff relates to his department’s budget –
they determine it (as does a City Council for a city police department).
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