October 27, 2025 – San Diego County Sheriff’s Office officials announce San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez has issued a strong response to San Diego County Board of Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe’s proposal to pursue a feasibility study for establishing an Office of Inspector General (OIG) with authority to investigate, audit, and review Sheriff’s Office operations.

On Tuesday, October 21, the Board approved moving forward with the feasibility study. The Sheriff was grateful for the opportunity to speak on the proposal, especially since the Sheriff’s Office was not consulted prior to the docketing of the board letter. The Sheriff’s Office hopes to be meaningfully involved in future efforts to ensure its complex, dynamic systems and operations are fully understood and considered in policy decisions moving forward. 

"At the end of the day, we all want the same things," said Sheriff Martinez. "We want policing and jail management in the county to be the best in the nation with community trust and support at the forefront of our efforts.”

During the Board of Supervisors meeting, Sheriff Martinez emphasized that the Sheriff's Office already operates under more than twenty local, state, and federal oversight bodies, making it one of the most heavily regulated law enforcement agencies in California.

"The Sheriff’s Office is already one of the most scrutinized and audited public agencies in this state,” said Sheriff Martinez. "We are accountable to the Board of State and Community Corrections, the California Department of Justice, the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, San Diego County Grand Jury, and many others. We must recognize that adding another layer doesn’t equal more accountability — it equals more bureaucracy. Each new oversight body duplicates reviews, drains resources, and diverts time away from what improves safety, care, and operations. It drains resources from real reform and undermines the progress our employees work tirelessly to achieve.”

Sheriff Martinez noted that the Sheriff's Office takes every recommendation and finding from these oversight entities seriously, using their input to continuously shape and strengthen its operations, training, and delivery of care.  Adding more oversight runs the risk of conflicting recommendations, which is concerning and puts the Sheriff in the position of deciding which laws and rules to follow. 

"We don’t dismiss oversight — we engage with it,” Sheriff Martinez added. "Every audit, inspection, and review informs how we improve. That’s how real change happens. But this proposal was advanced without any discussion, outreach, or engagement with my office — the very department it seeks to regulate. That’s not good governance, that’s exclusion. True transparency comes from working together to understand the challenges we face and the progress we’re making, not from layering on more bureaucracy that looks like oversight but delivers no real value.”

Sheriff Martinez reaffirmed the Sheriff's Office's ongoing commitment to transparency, safety, and modernization. Recent improvements in jail infrastructure, medical care, and compliance practices have been made in close partnership with the County's support and a culture shift of driving enhanced service delivery to those in our custodial care.

"The men and women of the Sheriff's Office have been driving meaningful change,” Sheriff Martinez added. "Our mission is to keep San Diego County safe while strengthening trust with the communities we serve — and that requires support, not political posturing.”

The Sheriff urged the Board to reject the OIG feasibility proposal and instead focus on collaborative solutions that build on the department’s progress in accountability and rehabilitation.

Source: San Diego County Sheriff’s Office