The San Diego County Sheriff's Department, commonly known as the SDSO, is the primary and largest law enforcement agency in San Diego County, California, and one of the largest sheriff’s departments in the nation: with over 4,000 employees, an annual budget of over $600 million, and a service area over 4,500 square miles extending to a 60 mile international border. The department, established in 1850, has over 4,000 sworn deputies and additional civilian support personnel servicing an area of nearly 4,526 mi².
The SDSO provides general law enforcement and public safety services to all unincorporated areas of the county (traffic enforcement, accidents, and other traffic related issues are handled by the California Highway Patrol).
Nine incorporated cities within the county (Del Mar, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove, Poway, San Marcos, Santee, Solana Beach, and Vista) contract with the department for municipal law enforcement and public safety services. Within these cities, traffic enforcement is also provided.
The department operates and provides detention facilities (jails), court services, and specialized regional services (such as air support, search and rescue, SWAT, etc.) to all of the county and the nine contract cities.
The Wireless Services Division is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the San Diego County-Imperial County Regional Communications System (RCS).
The current sheriff is William Gore.
Read more about San Diego County Sheriff's Department: Vehicles, Sheriffs, Deputies Killed in Line of Duty
Famous quotes containing the words san, county, sheriff and/or department:
“Mining today is an affair of mathematics, of finance, of the latest in engineering skill. Cautious men behind polished desks in San Francisco figure out in advance the amount of metal to a cubic yard, the number of yards washed a day, the cost of each operation. They have no need of grubstakes.”
—Merle Colby, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Hold hard, my county darlings, for a hawk descends,
Golden Glamorgan straightens, to the falling birds.
Your sport is summer as the spring runs angrily.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“The man’s an M.D., like you. He’s entitled to his opinion. Or do you want me to charge him with confusing a country doctor?”
—Robert M. Fresco. Jack Arnold. Sheriff Jack Andrews (Nestor Paiva)
““Which is more important to you, your field or your children?” the department head asked. She replied, “That’s like asking me if I could walk better if you amputated my right leg or my left leg.””
—Anonymous Parent. As quoted in Women and the Work Family Dilemma, by Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, ch. 2 (1993)