We'll focus on two groups: the Santa Rosa Police Department and the Sheriff's Department.
It is important to understand that SRPD only operates within official city boundaries, while the Sheriff's Department is responsible for unincorporated parts of the county and the jails. It was a Sheriff's Deputy, not an SRPD officer, who killed Andy Lopez. (We explained what unincorporated areas are on the Board of Supervisors page.)
The SRPD Chief of Police was appointed
by the SR City Council in 2019. (Please note the different
uniforms of SRPD and the Sheriff's Department.)
Sheriff/Coroner: Mark Essick.
He was elected in 2018, in the
first contested race in many years. This is an important position, and people should pay attention in 2022. Hopefully it will also be a contested election.
Because there's so much to say about law enforcement in Sonoma County, we're simply going to provide a link to a this website and this one, that keeps track of what's happening, much better than we could.
Because there's so much to say about law enforcement in Sonoma County, we're simply going to provide a link to a this website and this one, that keeps track of what's happening, much better than we could.
