PROGRAM: Ventura County Sheriff- Jim Fryhoff. Jim started his talk by announcing that Ventura County was named the safest large county in California. He believes in running his department with the 'upside down pyramid' structure; meaning the 850,000 residents in the County are the top priority and it funnels down to the Sherrif's dept. The deputies are there to serve the residents. He said there are only 1,000 residents in jail in Ventura County, that means there are 849,000 people out ther that are good. His department truly cares about the community and keeping it safe.
He was there to talk about the departments position on immigration enforcement. It is simple, he follows the letter of the law that was established in 2017 with Senate Bill 54 prohibits local law enforcement from getting involved. However, as was in the case with the glasshouse/ICE incident in 2025, his officers will deploy to keep order and everyone safe.
He said out of 22,000 bookings last year, ICE asked about only 1,300 and only 160 of those met the criteria where the department could share info with ICE. ICE only took 115 of those 160 into custody. It was a peaceful transfer.
He has asked ICE to provide a MOU on the procedures for how/when/why they are raiding a community. And how any issues will be investigated.
The Sherriff's department is also not involved in immigration detention. But they will work with Border patrol officers to let them know if they have an inmate in a VC jail that is getting out.
He feels the federal government can and should do a better job.
Despite all of the uncertainty in law enforcement right now, his department is still doing a great job of recruiting new deputies. They hire about 1 out of every 100 people that apply and it takes approximately 1 year after that hire to get that deputy on the streets.
After questions and answers President Darin had Sheriff Fryhoff sign a book that will be donated to a Title one School in T.O. in his honor.
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