In wide-ranging Q&A, Stanislaus County sheriff supports safe camping for homeless | Opinion

Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse sat down recently for a wide-ranging interview with The Modesto Bee Editorial Board. Here are excerpts, edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: Everyone votes in a sheriff’s race. Does that make you the most powerful leader in the county?

A: My wife reminds me I’m not the sheriff at home. She puts me in my place.

Q: Why did you agree to let A&E come to your jail to film “Booked: First Day In”?

A: Lucky 8 Productions approached us first for “60 Days in.” We talked about it and said, “We’re not doing that.” They put an actor in (jail) and it’s a false story. When they approached us for “Booked,” we saw it was real, just people who get booked, nothing fake. That, coupled with the fact that we’ve always struggled to show what our jail staff does, (is why the Sheriff’s Office agreed). Also, we see it as a potential recruiting opportunity.

Q: What is your department doing about illegal marijuana grows?

A: My “Green Team” is trying to focus more on the criminal enterprise aspect. We don’t really care about Bob or Jose who’s got 25 or 50 plants in their backyard. That gets referred to code enforcement, which sends them a letter and if they eradicate it, they never hear from them again. (Deputies) focus on the commercial level, those with thousands of plants in multiple hoop houses or on multiple sites, operations that are potentially associated with the cartel world. And we’re seeing fewer and fewer, because we’re good at what we do.

I would submit that illegal grows are worse than all other drugs put together when it comes to associated crimes of violence. We average 12 to 20 murders every year and this year to date we have two. It’s so abnormally low that it’s making me a little like, “What’s going on?” People have been shot and haven’t died, so that helps with the stats. But our aggressiveness, sending a message — “We’re coming” — helps, too.

Q: Where does the product from illegal grows go?

A: A lot goes out of state, where marijuana is not legal. If it’s $1,000 a pound here, it’s $3,000 a pound there. We also know that definitely a lot of illegal marijuana lands in legal dispensaries.

Q: What about fentanyl?

A: Chemicals from China go to Mexico, where they turn it into fentanyl pills or powder, and 95% of illegal fentanyl comes over our southern border. Most of it doesn’t come with illegal (migrants) but through ports of entry on semis or shipped with something else, or in tunnels under the border, or the new thing is flying in drones over the border. Let’s say they fly 100 a night; that’s 100 cops who have to deal with it and we don’t have that capacity. If we’re going to address fentanyl, we have to secure our border and we have to have stronger sentencing laws, no way around it.

Q: Do you support the idea of safe camping for homeless people?

A: You drive around, you’re going to see homeless and they create an impact on our community, whether pooping on a business doorstep or sleeping in an alley or stealing out of somebody’s trash can. It’s a frustrating game of Whac-A-Mole. You deal with it, some may go to jail and it pops up somewhere else. (Safe camping) doesn’t get them out of it but gives them a spot to be homeless for now and it’s not in your backyard or your business or your alley.

With MOES (the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter tent city), we saw that we got a lot of them out of the community and into a designated spot. But it created its own problems because MOES was far too big. It needs to be 16 to 25 people, which means we need a lot (of spots) dispersed throughout the community. They would have running water, a porta potty and a Dumpster. And if they go into any alley or down by the river, they’re going to jail. (With safe camping), outreach folks can actually solve problems because we’re condensing them into camps where they can interact with them. So, yeah, I fully support it — it’s a necessary step.

Nimbyism will be huge. No one wants them (nearby) and I do understand that; I wouldn’t want them in my neighborhood, either. But we have to acknowledge that what we’re doing now is not working.

You put them in a house (with no support), in 12 months the house is going to be destroyed and they’re homeless again. They need mental health assistance and they need addiction treatment and a far more robust conservatorship program.

I guarantee you, when I drive to my next appointment, I’m going to see somebody yelling at a stop sign, or it’s 100 degrees out and they have a down jacket on, or it’s 40 degrees in winter and they’re in a pair of shorts. No matter how you slice it, that is not good for them. We have to address it.

Q: What’s your take on Modesto’s Community Police Review Board?

A: Good on ‘em; they can do whatever they want. But I don’t believe it’s going to change anything, and I don’t mean that in a negative way.

The reason that most (officer-involved shootings) are not prosecuted is because most are legally justified. But people in my profession have made horrible mistakes the last few years, and many executives — sheriffs, police chiefs — don’t want to do what they need to do, which is fire people. And when they do, they’re hired by other agencies, and it’s an embarrassment to my profession.

But I don’t believe oversight changes anything. Me, I have 550,000 people who if they’re not happy with me, they can get rid of me every four years (in an election), or recall me. We have processes in place and I don’t think we need to create new ones. I view civilian oversight as another layer of bureaucracy.

Q: Is it hard to fire an officer?

A: The short answer is always yes. We will deal with the problem, but we’re also dealing with a human being, part of our family. So we try to do it with as much dignity and respect as we can.

I also never want to send the message to my staff that we don’t expect them to go after criminals. They just have to do it the right way.

Q: Might you retire before the end of your term in 2028?

A: The truth is I don’t know. I’m not someone who likes people getting elected to a job for life, or climbing a ladder from one position to another, and I’m not a huge fan of term limits, so at some point I’ve got to decide when to go.

Q: In the race for Congressional District 13, will you support Democrat Adam Gray or incumbent Republican John Duarte?

A: I don’t like (political) extremes on the far right or far left. I tend to like people in the middle. I am a registered Republican, but I told them very clearly, no party will ever tell me who to support. To me, that sounds like communism or fascism. If I’m not a strong enough party guy, oh well, I’m fine with that. I have a brain; I’ll use it.

I want people I think are going to do the best for our area. That’s why I really like Adam (and endorsed him in 2022). I felt he had a track record as a state assemblyman and excellent representative of his district — somewhat to his detriment when his party beat him up because he did not (always) stand with his party. I find that attractive.

John is my neighbor; I can see his house from mine. I like him and we’re friends and he’s had a decent first year (in office).

So I truly don’t know the answer to that yet.

Q: Could you have a political career after sheriff?

A: Absolutely no chance. I would hate that. I would not be a good legislator, that’s not my area. I can run things fairly well, and part of doing well is knowing what you don’t do well, and that’s not for me. This (sheriff) is the job I want.

This story was originally published September 13, 2023 at 7:00 AM.