What It’s Like to Be a Sheriff in Rural California—and Why I Challenge State Law

It was 3,000 people showing up for one job down in LA, but I had that drive and that passion of, I enjoyed it so much. I love the aspect that every day is different. You never know what is going to happen. You literally go from zero miles an hour to 120 miles an hour in a half a second. So that is what is just what I've enjoyed the most with this career. Our guest today on Bay Area Innovators is Elmendorf County Sheriff Gary Redmond. From serving in the United States Air Force to the streets of LA with LAPD, or taking on high-risk missions with the SWAT team, he has been on the front lines of law enforcement for the last 34 years. Today we'll talk about the moments that shaped his career, the risks he's taken, the crimes the public doesn't always see, and why he believes cooperating with ICE is the right way to protect and serve his community. This is Bay Area Innovators, and I'm your host, Steve Ispas. Sheriff Redmond, welcome to our program. Thank you very much. Well, I'd like to start with, you know, you had a career in law enforcement for 34 years now, out of which 27 years with the Elmendorf County, and you've been sheriff for four years out of those 27 years. And you've been in pretty much every position there is as far as the sheriff department. I'd like to start with your, you've been making headlines with your statements or your thoughts about how cooperating with ICE would help your community and how that's the right thing to do. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yeah, so when SB 54 came out in 2017, it really kind of, you know, wouldn't allow us to identify any illegals within our jail. And that's what it comes down to, is people that come into custody within Amador County. And so I've looked at it and I followed it. We haven't made any contacts with ICE. We haven't asked those questions. Are you here illegally? However, we still do ask where, you know, you were born. And most people are very honest. You know, I was born in China. I was born in Laos or Mexico. And so we can typically figure out, okay, they're probably not here illegally, but what I'm looking at is the public safety aspect where SB 54 kind of restricts us to go a little bit further than, say we have somebody that is here illegally, commits a heinous crime, a violent felony. They haven't been convicted, which is a portion of SB 54 that does allow me to contact ICE if they have been convicted of one of these heinous crimes under the penal code. And they're somehow gonna get released back into my community. That's where I've made that decision. I've come out openly and said, this is wrong. We've had too many incidences over the years, too many people either murdered or raped because of an illegal who was released back in the community and now goes out and commits this act. And as sheriff, I'm just not willing to do that. Public safety is my number one. That is my number one priority in Amherst County. Just help me clarify one issue, just for my own curiosity. When you book someone, when you arrest someone, do you get their driver's license, their IDs to figure out, you know, who they are? And if at that point you would know if they are illegal or not, right? So what happens is you come in and you can identify yourself, either through a driver's license or some type of legal document, but we always, what's called live scanning. You know, it used to be, you know, taking your fingerprints. Well, it's the same thing. It's on an automated machine. Those get shipped off and generally we'll get a return fairly quickly of who you are. So it doesn't always tell us that it does go through Homeland Security. And if Homeland Security is looking for you, then we're gonna get a notification that, okay, this person is probably wanted by Homeland Security. But those are civil detainers at that point. We're not allowed to enforce any type of civil detainer. It has to actually be a federal warrant for us to hold the person specifically just for that. Fresh charges, I can hold them all day long. So that's kind of how that works. But what happens is if they, you know, get arrested for, let's say rape, and they're not wanted by Homeland Security, they're probably not gonna pop up. But if we make that determination, they are here illegally and they're allowed to bail. People are allowed to bail. That is an actual right. So if you're part of our cartel and they've got money and they're gonna come bring money to bail you out and you haven't gone to court, well, SB 54 says, I can't do anything. And that's where I'm coming in and saying, absolutely, I will contact ICE if I believe this person is here illegally. And then ICE can make that determination on what they're gonna do. Yes. Is there any examples you can talk about, something that happened around these lines in your department, in your community? So I do, we had somebody last year, it was actually a group out of Stockton, and they are here illegally. They admitted they're here illegally in the country. Well, they were going around stealing throughout San Joaquin and my county, copper wire and cutting down AT&T lines. Well, what happened is they took my entire 911 system, all of my communications for 24 hours down. And we had two incidents where this occurred. So it was a huge impact on public safety. I had to put dispatchers over to another county. We had to transfer calls, but we were dropping 911 calls. And along with the internet, along with all telephone lines being down, because there's really only one hub that kind of goes through Amador County, which made me a little upset. And now I'm having conversations with AT&T. Well, I found out AT&T is such a large conglomerate company. They really didn't care what the sheriff from Amador County had to say. I finally did get them to fix these lines because what was happening, they were just laying on the ground. So they were a very easy access. So we finally did get them up off the ground. They were actually moved to kind of harden that. But that's that public safety risk that doesn't fall within SB54 that had such a huge impact. He was convicted of crimes. They don't fall within the SB54. So he's still in my facility. And at some point he is going to get released. And when he does, I'm gonna let IHTS know this is when he's getting released. But so far you have not. I have not. But you will when you sense that he will be a danger to the community again. Correct. Tell us a bit how you got involved into law enforcement. And I know you were in the military first, but I'm looking for like the defining moment where you decided, you know, this is what I wanna do for the rest of my life. Well, before I got in, I was 18. I think I was turning 19 when I went into the Air Force. Really wasn't sure what I wanted to do in life. And the military became an option for me because I was going to junior college. Well, I was kind of going to junior college. I think I was mostly surfing every day. And my parents, my dad was like, this isn't gonna work. You're either gonna go to school full-time or you're gonna get a job full-time. You're not gonna just surf every day. So I went out and joined the Air Force. And really for me, I was like looking at it as an opportunity to get into some type of aircraft mechanics. I've always enjoyed mechanics. And I thought, well, what a better place to be taught and learn aircraft mechanics. And that's probably a pretty good job when I get out at some point. And before I went in, my friends and I were getting ready to go to a bowling alley. There was a long wait. It was I think a Friday or Saturday night. And I decided, you know what? We're gonna go get a six pack of beer between the three of us. Just have a couple beers while we wait. And then we'll go in and bowl. And then by that time, it's three or four hours later and I'll take everybody home. How old were you at that time? I was nine. So I was still 18 at that point. When you're 18, you know where you can purchase alcohol. I mean, that's just part of being a kid. So we're in the parking lot thinking no big deal. Well, the next thing I know, I've got a Renando Beach PD is around my car. They pull us out. They talk to us. And they found out I was going into the military. They also found out one of my friends was 17. So he was still a minor. And they really let me have it as far as, kid, these are some very poor choices you're making right now. And what you're doing could jeopardize your entire life because if the military finds out you're doing this, they're not gonna let you in. And the Air Force would not have. So that was one of those defining moments of where I had that positive interaction with law enforcement, to where I wasn't going in to be in law enforcement, but then that's how it worked out. As soon as I was going through basic training, they said, you know what? You're now gonna be in law enforcement. You're gonna be security police. So I've always looked back at that on my interactions with the youth and tried to instill in them what was instilled in me, that every choice has an impact in life. And had I made some poor choices, I would have never been in this career and I would never be in this position. And unfortunately, kids just don't think that way. So they let you go at that time? They did. They made us pour the alcohol out. Good for them. And they let us go. They said, you know what? Go in. They could tell we weren't intoxicated. I think we had probably just opened, each one of us had probably just opened a beer. But they did let us go. Well, I had a similar story that happened to me and that I can relate to your story. When I was, I was probably 18 as well, I used to play water polo for Cleveland State University. And I was a rookie, you know, and then we had a tournament, I think it was around Columbus area. So the whole team goes out to this, it's not all you can eat, but like a market where you buy food. And you put food on a plate and then you go pay for it at the cashier, you know, for the whole plate. So I guess I was trying to show off to get some kind of respect from the other kids, right? So I started getting some food and instead of putting on the plate, I would just eat it directly, right? And I didn't notice there was a police officer behind me. So once I did that a few times, he just comes to me and he says, hey, you come here. And then he goes, let's go to the cashier and pay for it, right? And at this time I only have like a French fry, maybe a small tomato on my plate, right? So he takes me to the cashier and then I pay for like, whatever, it was 3.99 or something at the time. Well, there was a lot for me without me eating pretty much anything, right? So I was pretty scared because I grew up in a country, in a communist country where police is more there to get you rather than to educate you, right? And then he let me go. So I was very happy that I got away with just paying the 3.99. But there was to me a crucial moment because this was like 40 years ago, but since then I never ever thought of doing that again, right? And to me, the point that's really important is, what's the message we give to a kid or to an adult for that matter? If someone walks out of Safeway with a bag full of stolen goods and then the security guard has to get out of their way, otherwise he's gonna be in trouble. What's the message that it gives to society, right? Like, oh, it's okay to do it. I haven't even thought about doing it, but I might do it because I see they're doing it, right? Yeah. So to me, that was a defining moment. So I can very much relate to your story right there. Yeah, and honestly, it's really, it helped me shape who I am and the type of person I have been when I'm out there interacting with youth and even adults to a certain extent. Not everybody is a bad person. People just make some very poor choices and sometimes it's just getting them to recognize, this was a very, very poor choice. There are consequences. We have a lot of latitude in law enforcement, as far as when it comes, especially misdemeanors. Felonies are a whole different story. Felonies, we don't have much latitude, but misdemeanors, we do. And a minor in possession of alcohol, it's a misdemeanor. That's not a shallow arrest. It's not they have to go to jail. And I would take that opportunity and a lot of my deputies, as we were coming up through the ranks, we took that opportunity to educate the kids. Most of them were just good kids, once again, making some poor choices. Tell us about your passion for law enforcement. I know you mentioned to me once that if you could, you would do it for free. What makes it so important to you? Once I got into it and the Air Force said, you're gonna be in law enforcement, and then I decided this is a career that I wanna do, I was extremely driven to get into this career, even though when I got out of the Air Force in 1992, it was very, very difficult. It was 3,000 people showing up for one job down in LA. So it took me a number of years, from 92 to January of 96 is when I started the LAPD Academy. But I had that drive and that passion of, I enjoyed it so much. I love the aspect that every day is different. You never know what is going to happen. You don't know what's gonna be handed out to you that day. But the fact is, you go out there and you interact with people. Sometimes it's not a good interaction, but it's those positive interactions where they're so thankful that, here I called for help, I need you to help solve my problem, and there you are solving their problem. And sometimes that's taking a bad person to jail. Sometimes it's just talking with them and getting them to understand, hey, this is how the law works, and guiding them in that aspect. So it's that whole mixed bag, I think, of every day is so different. And you literally go from zero miles an hour to 120 miles an hour in a half a second. So that is what has just really, what I've enjoyed the most with this career. It's a little bit different now. I don't get to do that much anymore. But I still go out in the field as much as I can, because that is where my passion is. Speaking of that, you were with LAPD, was it four years? Two years, so I started the academy, I was class of 196, so 1996 of January, and then I left in January of 98, is when I came to Amador County. So I gotta ask you about the differences between LAPD and Amador County. I've been to Amador County, you showed us around, and we'll talk about that, but it's almost like day and night. It is, it's a completely different way of doing law enforcement. And when I got out of the academy, there's 18 divisions in LA that you could be assigned to, and I went to 18th, which is a lot, so it's kind of the South Central LA. Never, I grew up in a pretty affluent neighborhood in LA, so I didn't have a whole lot of experience with that. And now I'm dealing with gang members, and now I'm dealing with some of the worst of the worst, and I'm in the housing projects. Well, what I found is that there are so many good, hardworking people that live in these areas that want us there, that want us to take care of these bad people that are committing crimes, because most of the crimes are committed against them. So they had a tremendous amount of respect. All they wanted was to be treated fairly. They just wanted to be treated fairly and like a human being. But the gang members, it's like, we go after them. And I remember a couple times, I had these gang members looking at me going, you know, you're just picking on me. The only reason you're doing this is because I'm black. And I was like, excuse me, if there's a white person in Watts, guess what? I'm gonna be all over them because they have no business being here. They're either buying crack cocaine or they're looking for a prostitute. So I don't wanna hear your sob story. But completely different way of doing law enforcement from LA and then moving up to Amador County, where you've got a rural county, you're by yourself. And that was the biggest thing is my wife thought, you know what, I'm glad you finally left LA. You're gonna be so much safer. And after about a month of working with Amador Sheriff, I was like, hon, I'm sorry to tell you, but it's not safer. You know, we're- Well, why is that? We've got 594 square miles with 38,000 people. And sometimes we'll have two deputies on and a sergeant at night. So your backup is 20, maybe 30 minutes away. I have handled stuff by myself that if I had done that with LAPD, they would have disciplined me because it goes against officer safety. But here we have no choice. When every single one of my units is tied up on emergency type calls, CHP is tied up on emergency calls. The cities are tied up on emergency calls because we have three incorporated cities that have police departments. When everybody is so busy and now we get a domestic down in a campground, I went down there and I asked the guys that called, I said, how big is this guy? And they go, oh, he's a big guy. Okay. If I get in a fight, are you guys gonna jump in? They're like, yes, sir, we'll jump in. Okay, thanks. And I went and arrested the guy and he was a big guy, but he committed domestic violence. And that's something you would never do by yourself down in LA. You've always got a partner. You've always got backup right there. So you learn how to really talk to people and communication is the key, but also standing your ground. You don't come across arrogant because that's never gonna work, but you better come across confident. So in LA, the backup is 30 seconds away or something like that? Probably less than that, yeah. Like I said, I always had a partner. So your backup's right there with you. But then other units are right there if you need it. And generally, if we had a pretty hot call, there's anywhere from two, three, four, or five units that are showing up, where here you're gonna get hopefully your partner and then the sergeants come. So just a little bit different. Let's talk a bit about Amador County. I was there last weekend. You showed us around. It's just beautiful countryside. It's gold country. There's still mines operating, gold mines. We went to Sutter. Sutter Creek. Sutter Creek, Amador City, and Jackson. Can you talk us some of the innovations that you have come up with in the county in the last few years to improve service for the sheriff's office? So one of the big, big ones is we never really had a homeless issue in Amador County. We always had less than a dozen. It really wasn't a big impact. When Prop 47 happened, I talk about the fact that when they took away our ability in law enforcement and the district attorney's office to force people into drug treatment, they decriminalized everything. So what we saw was this huge explosion in the homeless population. And I think there's other factors that are involved, but that is a huge contributing factor. So when I became sheriff, we had Kmart, Walmart in our county that was just being terrorized by homeless encampments. And people were afraid to shop there. So I went out and I looked at what are other agencies doing that are tackling this that are successful? So I spent time with Eldorado and what's called their hot team and really learned kind of the ins and outs of why are they successful? And what it came down to was, if you're gonna do this, you've got to do a very resource-first approach. You've got to get people out of the homeless lifestyle. And there are people that absolutely will take us up on that opportunity and are very thankful for it. And we will do everything we can. We help them get identification, to job trainings, transportation, all that stuff. And that's what we do. Then the other segment is the ones that want this nomadic gypsy lifestyle of doing drugs, stealing, thefts, all that. So you've got an enforcement component. So that's how we really hit it. And we've actually been extremely successful in the unincorporated areas of Amador County to where I challenge people. I'm like, I dare you to go find six homeless people in the unincorporated areas. The cities, especially Jackson's a little bit different because they take a little bit different approach than we do. The offer's always there for us to work together, but they have their own outreach specialist person and she just takes a different approach. So I'm extremely proud of that. That's been a huge success. The accessibility to our office, online reporting is something we started. My accessibility, my engagement with the community. I'm all over social media. I use various platforms. I developed with a company, a sheriff's app to where now we can push out notifications. It goes right to your phone. It's a free app. You can look at inmate search and find out who's in custody. You can contact us. So things along those lines, I've been trying to really make us accessible and the community loves us. It's great to work in a community where the community actually stands behind law enforcement and champions us. Well, we visited your office and what I appreciated was the transparency. We are able to see a lot of the things that you do and the office and the setup and everything. Tell us a little bit about some of the experiences that you had. We talked about you being in the SWAT team and then we've seen one of your armored vehicles there. And then I think, tell us about you getting the armored vehicle, what the reason was and how you're using it. So when I started SWAT, that was 1999 and then I did eight years as an operator and then I did eight years as the team leader where I was actually running the team, training, running operations, the logistics, the planning, et cetera. That was my job as team leader. And then the last two, I was the executive officer for the SWAT team. So really that command and control over the team. So- That's in Amador County. In Amador County, correct. So we did have an armored vehicle that we got. It was called a Peacekeeper. It's actually an Air Force armored vehicle made by Cadillac back from the seventies. So it was old. It was completely outdated. We refurbished it as the best as we possibly could. It was only gonna be as good as it possibly could because it's so old. You know, we put a lot of money into trying to get this thing up to speed. But what it came down to is the armor on it was just insufficient. It would not stop heavy caliber rifle rounds like we have in Amador County. You know, we're talking seven millimeter Magnums, 308s, 7.62s are gonna go right through it. You know, it was for small arms is really what it was designed for. So we had an incident where we had just completed SWAT training. I was the team leader and we had just had SWAT training for the day. I went home, jumped in the shower and as I'm getting out, my phone's blowing up. And now what I'm finding out is my assistant team leader on his way home got diverted to a call of shots fired. A family at a ranch was getting shot at by their neighbor and he was actively engaging, trying to kill this person. And so they all diverted. And so now I'm throwing my clothes on, jumping my unit and I'm code three to that call. And I could hear the updates of, we're still taking rounds, we're still getting shot at. He's, you know, 400 yards out but he's putting rounds within 10 feet of us. And they're all hunkered down. So I get the armor there, I get everything there. And what it is, is he's in a mobile home that's about 100, probably about 200 feet from the main residence. And what it was, is he used to own this whole property. And these people that moved in, I believe they were Chinese and they took the property. They allowed him to live there but he didn't like the rules and regulations. And he was getting old. He was starting to have some Parkinson's issues but a big time hunter. So very, very, very, very skilled in hunting. And we knew that. So they got in an argument and as the homeowner ran back into his residence with his three kids, he ended up putting three or four rounds into that doorway. Well, then they hunkered down and called us. So I made the plan that we've got to get them out of there. They're not safe in that house with the amount of arms he has. So I said, all right, we're gonna load up in the Peacekeeper. We're gonna drive it over here around the residence. We'll lay down any cover fire if we have to. And we'll go upstairs and rescue these three kids that are upstairs along with the dad. How old were the kids approximately? They were small because I ended up picking two up and the other one, one of my other operators ended up picking up. So I think that they were all under 10. So little kids. But I realized that the Peacekeeper is not gonna stop these rounds. I told my SWAT team, it's not gonna stop our rounds. We've got our vests on that, rifle rated, that will help. I'm not 100% sure of those will even stop the seven millimeter bag. Okay, so tell us about the, this is the thicker version. Correct, so we've got soft body armor that's, generally it's rated for handgun rounds. This is what's called rifle armor. It's ceramic plates. They used to be extremely heavy. They do make some that are metal. They're also very heavy. These are ceramic. So a lot of different layers. And they're very light. These are a pound and a half a piece and they're about this thick. If you do get shot, it's gonna hurt, but you're gonna survive. So we did have these and we were utilizing these because not only did he engage the father and try to kill him, he shot their dog and he also put a couple of rounds into their 120 or 150 gallon propane tank I think hoping to get some type of ignition. Thing with propane is you can shoot a propane bottle all day long and it's generally not gonna do anything. You need an ignition source. Thankfully it didn't go off because that would have been tragic. It's good, it's not like in the movies, right? Yeah, it's not like in the movies at all. So that's what we were wearing. So really- So that's how you ended up getting the armor, the real armor vehicle. So what happened was the sheriff at the time, Martin Ryan said, this is unacceptable, but civilian armor, which is generally a Bearcat, they do make a lot of armored vehicles for agencies are anywhere from 253, $400,000 where the military has the MRAP, the MATVs, which are really just big armored vehicles. That's all they are for free. We're in a program where we can apply for it, we get it, we pay the shipping costs. I think we paid $8,000 to get this $750,000 piece of equipment. So now we have two of them. One's a bigger one, one's a little bit smaller, it's a little more mobile. And that's the one you saw is the smaller one. To me, what I think that one of the main points is about deterrence, right? Even the military, right? That there's so much equipment, there's so much stuff that the military has, it's for deterrence. You want the other country to know what you have so they're not gonna attack you, right? So when the bad guys see that you have this equipment and you're serious about it, they're gonna think twice about what they're gonna do next. What else can you tell us about Amador County? I know it's beautiful. Again, I've been there many times. What are most crimes that you have to deal with? So really the biggest issues we have to deal with here in Amador County are theft. Theft is probably the, well, it is the number one crime. Because I get asked that all the time. What are the number one crimes in Amador County? So anything involving theft, identity theft, burglary, breaking into houses, breaking into sheds, stealing stuff out of vehicles, mailbox theft, that's always been an issue and a problem because we're rural. We're so spread out and we've got mailbox clusters all over that people will start breaking into them during certain times of the year because Christmas is one where people start sending gift cards, et cetera. So that is our number one. And a lot of it stems from people, not only within Amador County that are addicted to narcotics and that's how they survive and that's how they get their habit is go out and purchase drugs is by stealing stuff. We do have an element that comes out of the valley in Amador County. But then domestic violence is another big one for us, unfortunately. And I get asked, how do you stop domestic violence? I can tell you right now, I can't stop domestic violence. That happens usually in somebody's home. We don't have the authority or the ability just to go into people's houses until we get called. So then it's upon us when we do learn about any type of domestic issue that we make sure that we handle it properly, that we do everything we can to help the victims of domestic violence. And we work with a lot of different organizations in Amador County and we do everything we can. Those are shallow arrests. If you commit some type of domestic violence where you use physical force on your spouse or cohabitant, you're gonna go to jail in Amador County. And I tell you what, I've arrested a lot of women for domestic violence. It's not just a man thing. It goes both ways. So that's probably the two biggest issues we have. And then of course the drugs, methamphetamine, cocaine's making a comeback, fentanyl. We just had a bust last week in Amador County where we had a pound of methamphetamine seized. And then along with that, we had two firearms seized and one of them was stolen. Those people were not from Amador County. Tell us more about your passion. What drives your passion of law enforcement? Is it the things you see every day? You mentioned the satisfaction of helping someone in need. Is there something else that keeps your passion going? Well, like I had mentioned, every day is so different. There's a lot of people that don't enjoy going to work or going to their job where I've always, it's been the complete opposite for me. Sometimes I would arrive a half an hour early because I was excited to go to work. I just love it that much. And like I had mentioned to you in the beginning, and I think I still feel this way, if I could have made a living and done it for free, I would have, but that's just not possible. For me, it's when you go out there and I hear young law enforcement or when they're interviewing, they're like, I wanna help people, I wanna help people. I get that, but you really don't know what you're talking about until you get into this career. Because the way we help people is we go out and we take bad people off the streets. We arrest bad people. So in my shift, there could be nothing going on, but I'm out there kicking over rocks. I'm checking every place that I can possibly think of to where I know people are gonna hang out, do narcotics or steal stuff. And I'm proactively making car stops because whether people like it or not, car stops are proven to reduce crime because it now shows the community we're actually out there working. We're not just drinking coffee on the side of the road. We're out there working. And it doesn't mean you're writing tickets all day because even when I make a lot of car stops, which I still do, I rarely write a ticket. It's usually education at that point. But we're looking for other things. We're looking, is somebody under the influence of marijuana, methamphetamine, or alcohol? And usually you can tell pretty much right away. You can tell right away, absolutely. It's pretty easy. Do they have a bunch of mail in their back seat? Now, did I just find somebody that stole mail out of a mailbox is doing identity theft. Do they have narcotics? Do they have a weapon inside the car? Are they wanted? So those are the things that you proactively go after. And that was my enjoyment was, I would come home after working a graveyard shift or a mid PM watch. I get home at three o'clock in the morning and I'm so excited. I'm telling my wife about my day. I made this arrest and I found this person and I solved this case. And that's how you're helping the community and helping people. That's that drive. You met your wife in the military and you were actually in Germany during the fall of the wall. Yes. How does she deal with you having to work sometimes, weekends or having to get up in the middle of the night and then arrest people? Thankfully, she doesn't always like it, but with her being in the military and she was also security police. So she was in Germany a year before I even got there. And so she understands that mission comes first. The military is very mission driven. The mission does come first. It's really whatever it takes to get to that mission completion. Sometimes that's working 36 hours straight. I've done that in the military. I've done that in this job. And we've had vacations planned where we're getting ready to leave for vacation. My girls were small and I get a phone call of we have a barricaded suspect. And I'm like, hun, I'll be home when I'm home. And off I go. Didn't always like it. Didn't always like the fact I wasn't around on holidays or kids' birthdays or got to see all their soccer games. But thankfully she really understood because I've seen tragically where spouses just don't understand that. And now that deputy has an extremely hard time because they're not getting that support at home. I could have never done this job alone. I'll be honest, I would have never made it this far without the support of my wife and my family. That's just how it is. Yeah, that's a great story. How easy is it for you to delegate the work or if there's something happening to send someone else or to not have yourself being involved? Probably the biggest obstacle that I face is delegating because I'm so hands-on. And it's not that I don't trust my staff. It's not that they're not capable because they are. They do an amazing work. I've got people that are a lot smarter than me. But I've been involved for so long and I've been with every little aspect that I do have a very difficult time delegating. And I've made myself so accessible to the community that they will call me for just every little thing and I'll just jump right on it. And my staff is going, boss, let us do it. You can't do everything, let us do it. So slowly I'm learning that I do need to delegate more but that's also just kind of my personality. But it's great to have that trust, the community trusts you and then you are there for them when they need it. Final question, please tell us any advice you have for young kids these days. It's very difficult for young people these days with all this video games and everything. But as far as law enforcement, what would be your advice to them? So what I've always told them and I told my daughters the same thing, you never know where you're gonna end up. When I was 18, I didn't know I was gonna be here. So it's making those choices in life with that in the back of your mind that some of those choices could close a lot of doors. Every choice has a consequence. There are consequences, believe it or not, still today. So please be mindful of that because you never know where you're gonna end up and you want as many doors open in life as possible. And this may be a path that you're never gonna take. But in law enforcement, we're extremely selective. We're picky for a reason. We have to be. And honestly, we police our own much better than anybody else can tell us how to police our own. None of us want bad apples. None of us want bad actors. And as sheriff, I have fired three people. We're talking tenured over, two of them had over 20 years. So I'm not afraid to drop the hammer when I have to. If you cross the line, you're done with me as far as this agency. And that's honestly really kind of law enforcement, I think, as a whole. Unfortunately, some of those bad actors do get through and those are the ones that are making the headlines. So that's my message to young people is think about that. Every action does have a consequence. Sheriff, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your service, keeping the community safe in the beautiful Amador County. And we'll see you next time when we go camping, maybe. Thank you very much. And love to have you back to Amador County. Thank you. Thank you for watching another episode of Bay Area Innovators. If you enjoyed this episode and you know someone who should be on our show, please send us an email at sfbay at epochtimes.com. We would love to hear from you. Thank you and see you next week.