El Dorado County Sheriff's Office 2017 Annual Report | Page 29

Professional Standards & Training

Personnel & Backgrounds

The Personnel and Backgrounds Unit is the

gateway to joining the El Dorado County

Sheriff’s Office. The three investigators and one

sergeant stay busy throughout the year

conducting background investigations on

candidates for every position with the Sheriff’s

Office. This year, over 1,000 job applications

were submitted to the Sheriff's Office. After

completing the recruitment and background

process, 40 new employees were selected to join

the Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff continues to promote internally to

sponsor current employees through the POST

Basic Law Enforcement Academy and fill Deputy

Sheriff vacancies; this year promoting six

current employees to Deputy Sheriff I. With this

in mind, the Personnel and Backgrounds Unit

increased the number of entry level

recruitments for positions such as Correctional

Officer, giving more people the opportunity to

join the Sheriff's Office.

All potential employees undergo a lengthy

background investigation and pre-hire process,

lasting from four months to a year from

application to date of hire. Once the

investigation is complete, the file is sent through

the chain of command for approval. The Sheriff

then meets with each candidate. Since 2011, the

Sheriff has met one-on-one with every new

employee hired. The hiring process is complete

after a medical and for some positions, a

psychological clearance.

The Professional Standards and Training unit conducts investigations when an employee’s actions have been questioned and provides follow up training if found necessary. The unit is tasked with providing the best training possible for Sheriff’s Office employees and to ensure professional conduct is maintained. Errors made by an employee will happen, but it is important to recognize Officers and Deputies are human and a mistake will also identify training opportunities to prevent reoccurrence.

Investigations conducted by the Professional

Standards Unit include Service Complaints and

Internal Affairs investigations. Service

complaints are formal complaints initiated by

citizens due to an officer’s actions. Internal

affairs investigations occur when a policy

violation has been discovered by someone

within the Sheriff’s Office. Both investigations

warrant a complete investigation on the actions

alleged and a finding is made.

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office holds all

employee’s to high standards of professionalism

and leadership. Many times a training need is

identified through an investigation, whether an

employee's actions are within policy or not.

The Training Unit is one of the main tenants of the Sheriff’s Vision ‘Total professionalism, through training and by example.’ Law enforcement officers in California are some of the best trained and educated officers in the nation. The Professional Standards and Training Unit keeps El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office employees up to date on all trainings, often far surpassing state requirements. Providing outside training opportunities to sworn and non-sworn employees allows the employees to learn from other agencies and bring back successful tactics to the Sheriff’s Office.

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