That panel, they wrote, “also failed to investigate nearly one‑third of the deaths of incarcerated individuals in the past 15 years, which means that dozens of deaths have not been subject to a key form of review outside of the Sheriff’s Department.”įaigin also has advocated for putting attorneys on police incident review panels so their discussions can be protected as secret under attorney-client privilege. The auditors also found that an incident review panel Faigin was part of “has failed to provide effective, independent oversight of in‑custody deaths.” “Furthermore, the Sheriff’s Department has not consistently taken meaningful action when such deaths have occurred.” “The high rate of deaths in San Diego County’s jails compared to other counties raises concerns about underlying systemic issues with the Sheriff’s Department’s policies and practices,” they added.Īuditors found inmates’ medical and mental health needs weren’t being met – and San Diego Sheriff deputies did a poor job of visually checking on the health of incarcerated people. “The Sheriff’s Department has failed to adequately prevent and respond to the deaths of individuals in its custody,” state auditors wrote in their report. The state probe came at a time Faigin had been the department’s top legal advisor for about 20 years.
In a scathing report last year, state auditors found the San Diego County department failed to take action to fix known problems in following its constitutional duties in the jails – and that as a result, people likely died unnecessarily. A Controversial History Under His Watch in San Diego
They include the jailhouse snitch scandal that caused at least half a dozen murder and attempted murder cases to fall apart, and an evidence booking scandal that caused criminal cases to be dropped against 67 people. “In OC he will be working for the Board of Supervisors to help improve the procedures and practices of the departments he will review.”įaigin is coming into the Office of Independent Review as the county Sheriff’s Department has faced numerous controversies over the past decade. “In San Diego, Mr, Faigin worked for the Sheriff who was his client,” Chaffee told Voice of OC. The OIR search that led to Faigin’s hiring was led by supervisors Andrew Do and Doug Chaffee, both of whom saw some of their biggest election campaign support from the sheriffs’ deputies’ union.Ĭhaffee told Voice of OC that Faigin’s role in OC is different from San Diego. “And Robert’s history shows that he has clearly taken the side of the sheriff.” “Oversight is only effective when people are willing to call out the injustices,” she added.
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Like This Free Civic News? Support Voice of OC Today. “If the office is going to be run by someone with the history that Robert Faigin has, what is the point?” said Ramirez. His hiring to oversee the OC Sheriff’s Department has some police reform advocates on edge.ĭaisy Ramirez, a senior police advocate and organizer the ACLU of Southern California, said she has no confidence in Faigin. Two decades into his watch at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, state auditors raised alarms last year about “the high rate of deaths in San Diego County’s jails compared to other counties,” citing failures to meet its constitutional duties to fix “systemic” problems.įaigin said he was unavailable for an interview about his record in San Diego County and his vision for his new OC job. Subscribe to Voice of OC's Free Newsletter The Morning Report Today.
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