This year has presented a wide array of challenges for our society and law enforcement agencies across the country. Recent events have resulted in protests and community inquiries about police actions, training, and recruitment. While we engage with the communities we serve on all of those topics, we wanted to highlight the challenges of recruiting and training a deputy sheriff.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office provides police services to five of the ten incorporated cities in the county, as well as all of the unincorporated areas. The demands we place upon our personnel are very high, as are the public expectations. The deputies you see working throughout the county and patrolling neighborhoods in Ojai, Fillmore, Camarillo, Moorpark, and Thousand Oaks represent just one percent of those who apply to become sheriff’s deputies. They are highly trained and experienced before they ever hit the streets. All of our deputies spend time in operational positions within our jail system once they graduate from the six-month training academy. We have found that working in the jails provides deputies an opportunity to further develop their problem-solving skills in a controlled environment before they are assigned to patrol.
The steps each applicant goes through just to get a spot in an academy class are tough hurdles to clear, which is why 99 percent of applicants don’t make the cut. More details about the screening and hiring of our personnel can be found here: https://s29762.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Hiring-Training-Reporting-and-Accountability-A-VCSO-Overview.pdf
The residents of Ventura County deserve the best peace officers available to answer their calls in the most critical moments. As your law enforcement agency, we will continue to provide the highest quality services to our communities.
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