On February 2, 2016, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved mid-year budget reductions for General Fund departments.
This reduction resulted in a 1% decrease to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office operational budget which equates to $1,189,375.
This mid-year budget reduction will significantly impact the Sheriff’s Office operations and the services we will be able to provide in the immediate future.
In order to meet this mandated and unanticipated budget reduction the following measures will occur, effective February 20, 2016: The North Area Substation located in Buttonwillow will be closed.
Five deputies and one Sheriff’s Support Technician currently assigned to this substation will be moved to existing funded vacancies in the department.
The remaining deputies will be assigned to the Delano Substation and will be responding to calls for service in the north area communities from this substation.
Unfortunately, this change will likely increase response time to calls for service.
The Boron Substation will be closed.
One deputy position will be reallocated to an existing funded vacancy in the department and another position will be assigned to an existing funded vacancy at the Mojave Substation.
Deputies from the Mojave Substation will be responsible for handling calls for service in the Boron area. This substation closure will greatly impact response times to the Boron communities.
The Major Violators Unit (narcotics team) and Vice Unit will be disbanded and the deputies assigned to these units will be moved to existing funded vacancies.
The ramifications of reductions in these specialized units are far reaching and likely to result in increased gang and drug activity throughout our county.
A supervisory deputy position at the East Bakersfield Substation will be moved to an existing funded vacancy in the department.
This move will significantly impact the East Bakersfield community substation which will have a reduction in services provided to the neighborhood residents and Sheriff’s Activities League.
The Ridgecrest Jail will be closed and all detentions staff will be reassigned to the Lerdo facilities to fill funded vacancies.
This jail closure will eliminate booking and housing services in the northeast area of our county.
This will affect the Kern County Sheriff’s Office and allied agencies ability to book prisoners in Ridgecrest.
Deputies and allied agencies’ officers will be required to transport their arrestees to the Mojave Jail.
This will cause the arresting officers to be out of their jurisdictions for increased periods when transporting and booking prisoners at the Mojave Jail.
