Facts

The California Attorney General, on behalf of plaintiff, the People of the State of California filed a complaint against the County of Kern and the Kern County Sheriff's Office regarding alleged incidents conducted by Kern County law enforcement officers against various individuals which deprived them of their rights, privileges, and immunities guaranteed by the Constitution.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff contended that due to defendants' inadequate policies, practices and procedures, defendants fail to enforce the law and have constantly engaged in numerous patterns of conduct which violate individual's constitutional rights. Defendants engaged in unreasonable searches, seizures, and arrests in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Plaintiff also contended that defendants failed to express appropriate managements and supervision of its law enforcement officers.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant denied plaintiff's contentions.

Result

In a stipulated judgment, the Department of Justice and the Kern County Sheriff's Office worked cooperatively to establish a five-year plan that provides for an extensive range of corrective actions, including to review and revise use-of-force policies and principles to prohibit the use of maneuvers that create a substantial risk of positional asphyxia; modify canine-related policies and training to ensure canines are deployed in a manner consistent with "find and bark" rather than "find and bite" approaches and limiting off-leash canine deployments only to instances in which a suspect is wanted for a serious felony or is reasonably suspected to be armed based on individualized information; strengthen use-of-force reporting, developing a policy and process to inform the public about all officer-involved shootings, deaths in custody, or other significant matters; require supervisory investigations for all reportable uses of force, including requirements for supervisors to respond to the scene and document findings in a "Supervisor's Report on Use of Force"; improve use-of-force training; analyze use-of-force data; and provide all dispatchers and their supervisors with crisis intervention training, as well as establishing a preference for deputies who are specifically trained in dealing with individuals in mental health crisis or suffering from a mental health disability to respond to such calls for assistance, among many other things.