With thousands of sworn officers working to police a 7,200 square mile county, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is one of the largest of its kind in the nation. Currently led by the outspoken Chad Bianco, it has also been a department in crisis.
Today, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors will consider a proposal by newly-elected Supervisor Jose Medina to study the establishment of an oversight committee and office of inspector general to hold the department accountable.
Supervisor Medina, previously a member of the state Assembly, defeated then-Sen. Richard Roth last year to fill an open seat on the county board. This editorial board endorsed Medina, who made oversight over the sheriff’s department a centerpiece of his campaign.
In January 2024, Medina explained in a commentary for these pages, “We have seen the horrific classroom restraint and handcuffing of an 11-year-old Black student with a disability. Recent news stories have also reported Riverside County sheriff deputies’ involvement in illegal drug possession and the trafficking and sexual extortion of females in custody.”
Indeed, Medina had a vast litany of problems which continue to stain the department to point to, including a troubling surge in the number of people who were dying while in the custody of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
This year, a joint investigation by The Desert Sun and the New York Times noted, “Killings are relatively rare in American jails, but those in Riverside County experienced a surge in them. They had the highest homicide rate among large jails in California from 2020 through 2023, according to state data. The murders and other deaths made the county’s five jails the second-deadliest in the nation during that period.”
Such terrible stories have only piled up since then for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
In May 2024, Riverside County paid $7.5 million to the family of Christopher Zumalt. Arrested for public intoxication, Zumalt died after a violent confrontation in jail with deputies who chose to use force rather than de-escalate things.
Earlier this month, columnist and editorial board member Steven Greenhut wrote about the $1.3 million payout to a Wildomar man who was beaten while sitting in his backyard listening to music.
“Whatever the case, mind your p’s and q’s while in Riverside County given its, er, interesting standards for appropriate deputy behavior,” Greenhut advised.
These stories have unfortunately become commonplace under the leadership of Sheriff Bianco, who is a regular Fox pundit and candidate for governor.
Bianco was elected in 2018 after being put up to run by the local deputies union, which spent heavily to oust his conservative predecessor. Bianco has clearly mismanaged the department ever since. After all of these years, it’s clear the department needs real oversight.
Medina’s proposal to establish an ad hoc committee to look into establishing real oversight over the department is a modest one. With the millions in payouts Bianco’s department costs Riverside County, it’s time to have some adults in the room. We encourage the board to approve Medina’s proposal and get the ball rolling on this.
