Of 50 citizen complaints about Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office in 2012, four sustained

Recent data from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office offer a measuring stick as to how many incidents a proposed civilian oversight agency might review in a typical year.

The Sheriff’s Office received 50 citizen complaints in 2012, the most recent year for which complete statistics were available. In 22 cases, the staff person was exonerated. Four of the complaints were sustained and four remain open, said Lt. Mark Essick, who oversees internal investigations and represents the Sheriff’s Office on the task force.

The remainder were inconclusive, unfounded or no finding was possible because, for example, when complainants didn’t respond when sheriff staff tried to reach them.

Because of personnel confidentiality rules, no information is publicly available on what action the Sheriff’s Office took in cases were the complaints were sustained.

Internal affairs staff opened 11 investigations in 2012 for the most serious citizen and internal complaints, Essick said.

Three of those cases resulted in resignations, one case was sustained, one was inconclusive, one was unfounded and in five cases, staff were exonerated.

Sheriff Steve Freitas said he has launched staff on an internal audit of use-of-force complaint investigations for the past five years. He said he plans to bring in an outside expert to review the investigations as well.

“I hope the public expects us to be right 100 percent of the time,” Freitas said.

Freitas, who has been sheriff since 2011, has said that the number of complaints has not changed dramatically from year to year during his time leading the department.