History
Riverside County was created from portions of San Bernardino and San Diego Counties on May 9, 1893. In the early history of the county, the sheriff's office was a one-person operation. As the county grew in population, so too did the department, eventually transforming into a modern full-service law enforcement agency.
The department made national headlines on May 9, 1980, when five men armed with shotguns, an assault rifle, handguns, and an improvised explosive device robbed the Norco branch of Security Pacific Bank. Since dubbed the "Norco shootout", deputies responding to the bank robbery call, armed only with their pistols, confronted the perpetrators outside the bank and a prolonged gun battle and subsequent vehicle pursuit ensued. The aftermath of the incident left 33 patrol cars damaged or completely destroyed, one sheriff's helicopter shot down, three robbers imprisoned for life, two robbers dead, eight sheriff's deputies wounded, and one deputy killed in the line of duty.
In 2013, the department again made headlines by arresting a special needs student who was allegedly entrapped by an undercover officer.
Today the Riverside County Sheriff's Department is responsible for 7,303 square miles, spreading almost 200 miles in length, and embracing approximately 50 miles in width. This territory constitutes the third largest county in the state of California and is roughly the size of the state of New Jersey in total area. Vast changes have occurred in Riverside County since its inception. The population, having increased from 13,745 in 1893, to more than 2,189,641 in 2010, ranks it fourth in population among California's counties behind Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties respectively. Expanding to keep up with the county's explosive growth, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department is now the second-largest sheriff's department in California, with a staff of over 4,500.
Read more about this topic: Riverside County Sheriff's Department (California)
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—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)