Sonoma County Sheriff's Office veteran named to assistant post

<p>Sonoma County Sheriff's Lt. Lorenzo Dueñas, a 22-year veteran of the sheriff's office, has been appointed to serve as assistant sheriff over law enforcement under incoming Sheriff Steve Freitas.</p><p>In naming him to the post, Sheriff-Elect Freitas, who holds it currently, called Dueñas a highly ethical public servant who has continually pursued professional growth — graduating, for instance from the FBI National Academy in 2009 and completing the Advanced Supervisory and Management Program through the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.</p><p>“One of the proud things,” Dueñas said in an interview, “is just being the first Latino executive manager here. That's important to me. And working with the Hispanic community to have good ties, good relationships, that's important to me.”</p><p>Dueñas, who was raised in Roseland, served in the U.S. Marine Corps for six years, then attended Santa Rosa Junior College before getting a job as a Healdsburg Police Officer.</p><p>After three years in Healdsburg, he joined the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, working his way up the ranks.</p><p>He was one of the department's first community oriented policing officers, assigned to Roseland, and later worked as a violent crimes detective.</p><p>As a sergeant, Dueñas oversaw field training, helicopter search and rescue and the Multi-Agency Gang Task Force.</p><p>He was promoted to lieutenant about five years ago and was in charge of personnel — hiring, firing, risk management, safety training and the like, all applicable to his future role as administrative backup to the sheriff, Freitas said in an interview.</p><p>He recently was assigned to supervise the sheriff's investigative bureau.</p><p>Freitas said he considered four people for the job of assistant sheriff, one of whom withdrew before he settled on Dueñas.</p><p>“The key thing for me is his experience in the area of personnel and administration and risk management,” Freitas said. “Those things, and just his ethics and integrity and honesty, which is something he's really known for and is something that's really critical to me.”</p><p>Dueñas will assume his new post after Freitas, elected in June, becomes sheriff in January, though just when depends on how quickly additional changes can be made to backfill his position in investigations, Dueñas said.</p><p>As assistant sheriff, he will oversee 275 deputy sheriffs, sergeants and lieutenants, as well as numerous civilian support staff in the patrol, investigations, court security and transportation bureaus.</p><p>The assistant sheriff also oversees contracts providing police service to the towns of Windsor and Sonoma.</p><p>Correctional service falls under the supervision of a second assistant sheriff, Linda Suvoy.</p>