A push to create an independent oversight body for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department due to record numbers of deaths in the county’s jails cleared an initial hurdle this week, even as some called for more immediate action in the wake of a recent civil grand jury report that found “systemic deficiencies” within the department.
The county’s board of supervisors agreed during its meeting Tuesday, July 14 to create an ad hoc committee that will bring back recommendations on oversight for the sheriff’s office within six months. The vote came after over an hour of public comments from residents and stakeholders, most of whom supported additional oversight for the sheriff’s office.
The new committee is being formed roughly a year after the board declined to study creating an oversight body. At the time, in July 2025, Medina was the only member in favor of the study, which drew strong opposition from Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
But Medina and Board Chair Karen Spiegel — both of whom would serve on the ad hoc committee under the new proposal — wrote in a report included with Tuesday’s agenda that “circumstances have continued to evolve” since the board’s prior vote, specifically citing the recent findings by the county’s civil grand jury, including a recommendation for independent oversight of the sheriff’s office.
While the board voted to study the issue through the ad hoc committee, some who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting urged the board to take more immediate action towards implementing oversight.
“The people of Riverside County do not need another study or another committee,” Luis Reyna, who was representing a local committee of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told the board. “They need leadership and action.”
“(The ad hoc committee) risks becoming another delay instead of a direct response to the grand jury’s recommendations,” Reyna added.
Board members later responded that creating an ad hoc committee was the best way to ensure the process is conducted thoroughly and includes a broad range of stakeholders.
With the board’s approval, the ad hoc committee will bring its findings and recommendations on next steps to the entire board of supervisors within 180 days, according to the report from Medina and Spiegel.
Residents push for immediate action on oversight
Many residents pushing for more oversight of the sheriff’s department cited the recent findings of the civil grand jury, which launched its investigation in response to “persistent concerns” regarding in-custody deaths, internal investigative practices, and the office’s absence of comprehensive independent oversight.
The sheriff is independently elected, and county supervisors and staff have little direct control over operations of the sheriff’s department, though supervisors have control over the department’s funding.
The grand jury’s report was produced following interviews with sheriff’s deputies, including those responsible for jail operations and internal investigations, as well as a review of documents and site visits to all five county jails.
Among the report’s findings were that internal investigations of in-custody deaths “lack structural independence and publicly accessible reporting,” while public data on jail operations is “limited and inconsistent.” It found that the absence of an independent civilian oversight committee “remains a crucial gap.”
The report was issued more than three years after California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation into the sheriff’s department, citing a sharp and “disturbing” rise in deaths in the county’s jails, as well as allegations of excessive force and other misconduct. Bonta’s probe is ongoing.
The grand jury’s report also followed years of investigations by The Desert Sun, some in partnership with The New York Times, which found that detainees were ignored by deputies soon before they died by suicide and that the majority of staff at one jail were not trained properly to do safety checks required by law.
The deaths reached a peak in 2022, when 19 detainees died from a mix of homicides, suicides, overdoses and natural causes. Riverside County jails had the highest homicide rate among large jail systems in California from 2020 through 2023, according to state data.
Several residents spoke Tuesday in favor of establishing more independent oversight for the sheriff’s office, though some questioned whether the ad hoc committee was a necessary step in the process, urging the county to move more quickly.
Lisa Matus, who’s been an active advocate for oversight of the sheriff’s department since her son died in jail in 2022, urged the board to “act now,” and she questioned whether the ad hoc committee will include advocates like her.
“I am troubled that nowhere in this proposal are the voices of the impacted families,” Matus said. “The people who have buried their loved ones, I being one of them, have lived through these failures and are virtually absent from this process.”
While more people spoke in favor of the proposal, a few residents pushed back, describing the push for oversight as a politically motivated move against Bianco, a Republican who recently lost his bid to be California’s next governor. Bianco has previously described the grand jury’s report as “completely flawed.”
Bianco did not speak at Tuesday’s meeting, as he was attending a press conference in Riverside endorsing Michael Gates, the Republican candidate for attorney general. After that press conference, Bianco also announced he will seek re-election as sheriff in 2028.
Instead of Bianco, the board heard from Undersheriff Don Sharp, the sheriff’s second-in-command. Sharp credited the office’s 4,000-plus employees for doing a “great job.”
“They’re out there in a very tough situation trying to do their work,” Sharp told the board. “And as far as oversight goes, that’s where the five of you come in.”
“It’s unfortunate things happen, and we try to do things better there,” he added. “But I just want to make sure that you understand that we are transparent and we always have been.”
The board also heard from Jose Santos, president of the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association, the union representing the department’s deputies.
While the union has previously opposed similar oversight proposals, Santos said they are withholding a formal position on the latest proposal “until we can determine whether this process is comprehensive, fair and thoughtfully designed.”
“The integrity of this process will be measured by whether all voices are genuinely included, all impacts are honestly studied, and the outcome is driven by facts, rather than politics,” Santos told the board.
New committee ‘only the first step,’ supervisor says
Before the vote, Medina said he received more than 40 emails supporting the proposal, as well as letters from organizations such as the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. But he noted the board “may not have been here” to reconsider the proposal without the grand jury’s recent report.
“But I remember the saying, ‘It’s never too late to do the right thing,’ and that’s where we are today,” Medina said.
Medina described the board’s vote Tuesday as “only the first step” in the committee process, adding he and Spiegel want to ensure “that the voices that we heard here today are reflected in our work.”
Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, who represents the Coachella Valley on the five-member board, noted he initially brought a related proposal to the board in June 2020 amid nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in Minneapolis.
That motion would’ve required a review of the sheriff department’s policies regarding the use of force, mass demonstrations, racial profiling and other policies, but it died from a lack of second. (Perez did not explain why he declined to support Medina’s more recent motion in 2025.)
Perez added that he understood why some residents were not happy about the county creating an ad hoc committee, but he said the grand jury’s report “does not spell out” clear next steps.
“It might map out in bigger words, if you will, systems like governance, accountability, transparency, but what does that mean?” Perez said. “What does it really look like on the ground?”
In their report, Spiegel and Medina said the ad hoc committee will allow the county “to evaluate existing advisory mechanisms, review governance models implemented in other jurisdictions, engage with stakeholders representing a variety of perspectives, and consider the legal, operational, fiscal, and governance implications associated with various approaches.”
While the supervisorial positions are nominally nonpartisan, Perez also said it “makes me happy” that the ad hoc committee will consist of a Republican in Spiegel and a Democrat in Medina.
The board approved the measure by a 4-0 vote, with Third District Supervisor Chuck Washington absent from the meeting.
Tom Coulter covers local government and politics for The Desert Sun. Reach him at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Riverside County’s step toward sheriff oversight panned as ‘another committee’
Reporting by Tom Coulter, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
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By Tom Coulter, Palm Springs Desert Sun | USA TODAY Network
