Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper is well into his third year on the job, having been elected in 2022 as the first Black sheriff in county history.
And his office continues to face a barrage of issues, ranging from the ongoing homelessness and fentanyl crises to implementing the tough-on-crime Prop 36, to new mental health policies and navigating financial uncertainties.
Cooper is a longtime Sacramento County resident, having worked in the Sheriff’s Office for over 30 years.
He’s also no stranger to elected office. Cooper served as a councilmember and Mayor of Elk Grove for 15 years, and as a Democratic State Assembly member representing the 9th District from 2014-2022.
Cooper joined Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez for a wide-ranging conversation on some of the priorities his office is addressing, and how he approaches his responsibilities as Sheriff.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
PROP 36
You were a State Assembly member in 2014 when Prop 47 was passed by voters. How did your time in the Legislature shape your criticisms of that measure and your support for Prop 36, which repealed parts of Prop 47?
Coming from law enforcement, I knew the issues that were very evident from Prop 47. A lot of unintended consequences. I tried to run several bills starting in 2015, [but] couldn't get them through the Legislature. I ran a ballot initiative, Prop 20. It got defeated in 2020, and we resurrected Prop 36.
Why do you think Prop 36 passed this time?
The public was so fed up. What happened was in your face, the public saw it. It was visceral. And they were fed up with the theft that went on and on and on, and that's what drove it… public sentiment.
What have been the biggest changes for your office with Prop 36?
Arrests are up, we've seen that. We've seen an increase in our jails. More importantly from the retailers, some of the theft is down. Criminals are talking about it amongst themselves, they're aware of it.
We did several operations… over a thousand arrests, the majority were not homeless and weren't stealing food. People were stealing because there was no accountability, they knew they wouldn't get in trouble. That was a culture that California created with the passage of Prop 47.
Does the lack of dedicated funding get in the way of the intention of Prop 36?
In some aspects yes, but it really shouldn't. This was a mandate from the voters. Seventy percent of Californians in the Bay area, in LA, voted for this, and the Legislature needs to fund it. It never would have been on the ballot if it had not been funded. The Legislature had many chances to change Prop 47, and they stood steadfast and refused to change. Finally it got so bad, they had no choice. The ballot initiative was a game changer.
MENTAL HEALTH POLICY
Last month your office announced a new policy, where deputies would no longer respond to mental health calls unless a crime was committed. Why did you make that change?
You've seen a lot of bad outcomes, a call regarding mental illness and it goes bad, and that person dies. We don't want that. So if it's a call involving someone who's mentally ill, if a crime is being committed, we’ll come. If someone's safety is threatened, other than the person that's mentally ill, we’ll show up. But you call us on a mentally ill person, we show up, there's been no crime committed, what is the expectation for us being there? What do they expect us to do, wrestle them down? Sometimes just by introducing that badge and gun, it incites people.
I don't want to be put in a bad situation. There's a ruling now, that an officer personally can be held liable for that. We are public safety officers. We're not trained to be therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, to deal with mental illness. For so long it's always been law enforcement… just because we've done something forever doesn't make it right.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District objected to this policy because they were concerned it could place firefighters or fire crews at risk. How did you respond to these concerns?
Law enforcement, for a long time, has been told what they can and cannot do by the Legislature, by laws. Firemen are not used to that, and that's really been the big issue. If a crime has not been committed and we show up, what is that expectation for my deputies? I'm not going to put hands on someone that hasn't committed a crime just because you're refusing treatment. Also, if someone assaults a fireman, we're going to be there and they need to press charges. That hasn't happened in the past.
If someone is going through a mental health crisis, who should they call?
If it's an emergency, call 911. If someone's life is threatened, a crime has been committed, call 911. But if it's just because they're suffering a mental health crisis, call 988. Those are trained clinicians that know how to deal with this and can work through it, and can provide references.
Do you think that the county has enough resources for mental health clinicians?
Nobody does, and that's really a statewide issue. You can skin your knee and go to the emergency department or after-hours clinic. But if you're having a mental health crisis, where do you go? In that aspect, government has failed our folks that suffer from mental illness.
IMMIGRATION
Fears of immigration crackdowns and mass deportations have been a concern across California, and in Sacramento. The Sacramento Police Department says it won’t engage in immigration enforcement. How will the Sheriff’s Office respond if federal authorities ask it to assist?
We follow the law. The Legislature is very clear in [Senate Bill] 54 what we can and cannot do. I didn't feel it was necessary to issue a statement. I don't get to pick and choose what laws I'm going to apply.
How do you respond to other sheriffs, like your counterpart in Amador County, who say that they'll break the state sanctuary law and report arrested people to immigration authorities?
There’s some things you can report, certain crimes, and some folks aren't doing that. The way I read it is that he's going to respond with those crimes that were available. Some departments, they just don't report anything whatsoever, even though they're allowed to under SB 54.
What would you tell residents who may have a loved one who's undocumented, or may be undocumented themselves, and are fearful at this time?
Number one, we're not going to ask [for] your immigration status. If you're a victim of a crime, please call us. We will come out, respond and handle it appropriately. But we're not asking [about] your immigration status. We just don't do that. We want to make sure you're safe, whether you're documented or undocumented.
FENTANYL
How has your office changed the way it addresses and responds to fentanyl and opioid overdoses or poisonings?
Very aggressive, we've had several operations with that. What's ironic is with all the overdoses and deaths, the Legislature needs to do more. They didn't want to do anything that put anybody in jail or prison. These folks are killing people [and] deserve to be in prison. That was part of the driver, I think, for Prop 36 also because folks saw that, they read about it every day. It was in their face.
A sheriff's deputy resigned earlier this year after overdosing on fentanyl while on duty in 2023. What is the lesson or the larger message that you take away from that incident?
He was resigning but we ultimately fired him. It's everywhere. I don't care. Whatever profession you are, you see it. The drug abuse, you've got to deal with it. Unfortunately, he was a bad apple and he's no longer employed by the sheriff's department. It was a black eye. There's no two ways about it, we didn’t try to sugarcoat it. But things happen like that.
HOMELESSNESS
Last year the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case gave cities and municipalities more leeway to clear homeless encampments. Has your office changed how it responds to encampments or people experiencing homelessness?
No, we haven't. As a state we've spent $24 billion on homelessness. It's gotten worse. That is an important thing because you never had a lot of data on what was going on with those folks. So when I came in we started keeping data. And what a lot of folks don't know, most homeless people refuse services. They don't want to come off the streets. Part of it is because they're mentally ill or they have a drug addiction and they don't want to do that. That was real big to us.
We talked with the county and changed some things. What it comes down to [is] if you want help, we're going to help you. If you don't want help, then we got some problems. You still can enforce the laws in the camps, which no one was doing and we started doing. The Grants Pass decision really helped us but for the most part, it's just doing what we've been doing. It didn't really change our day-to-day operations that much.
What about people who would argue that there aren't enough resources or housing for people experiencing homelessness? There's a lot of people who are just one paycheck away from being unhoused, and aren't committing any crimes.
That's true, but housing is not the answer. The problem we're dealing with is a problem of addiction, it’s a war on addiction. And having worked narcotics, it is hard to get off drugs. Until we deal with that, and deal with mental illness, things will not change. You cannot build your way out of this. It hasn't worked with the $24 billion that the state has spent on housing. Until we really address those issues and give services and programs, that's a game changer. But no one wants to talk about that.
SACRAMENTO COUNTY MAIN JAIL
The Sheriff’s Office faces challenges at the Sacramento County Main Jail in Downtown Sacramento. There have been deadly fights and overdoses at the facility over the past year. How do you address safety issues inside the jail?
We're under a federal consent decree, where a judge basically tells us what to do. On that consent decree, it's about 20% [the] sheriff's office. The other 80% is the county Department of General Services. We can't change that. Adult correctional health, jail medical, I don't hire, I don't fire. I do nothing with that. The county controls that.
To get out of that consent decree and change that, you've got to build a new jail. That's over $1 billion, probably closer to $2 billion. [People] don't want it downtown. Folks have said a lot of crime downtown is committed by inmates being released, and I'm going to call BS on that. There are a lot of other problems downtown and the jail is not the primary factor on that.
On the drug issue, we had drugs being smuggled in the jail. We did an investigation, a nurse was smuggling drugs in. That's where the fentanyl overdose came from. That’s dropped dramatically since the arrest of that nurse.
County supervisors voted 4-1 last month to suspend the construction and the design of a proposed $1 billion intake and health services facility annex at the main jail. Your office agreed with the recommendations to suspend the current project, why?
They spent some money on different studies, and things [weren’t] done right. I think we're in the right direction, but at the end of the day if you want to get out of [the consent decree] you have to build a new jail. If you're going into receivership, you're going to have a judge telling you what you will and will not do, and cost doesn't matter. A lot of county programs, social programs would be cut.
POLITICS
It’s been two months since President Trump's inauguration, how does a change in administration at the national level impact the Sheriff's Office?
Not a lot so far, but obviously we receive a lot of federal monies. That's one thing depending on what happens, being a sanctuary state, we're potentially at loss for federal funding which we rely on. It’s a tightrope that obviously the county has to walk. My job first and foremost is to make sure that when you call, a deputy responds. Seeing what's happening, it does concern me. When you start messing with people's funding, that's a big issue.
How essential is federal funding for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office? If you were to lose it what kinds of services, resources, or support would you not have?
It would be probably $7 or $8 million in funding. That's a big hit. That's a lot of deputies. We still [have] not recovered from the recession in ‘08 or ‘09. Crimes have gone up. Our population has gone up. So we never recovered then, and hopefully nothing happens now because it's not sustainable.
The Sheriff's Office is a non-partisan race, but for the State Assembly you ran as a Democrat. You were a legislator during President Trump's first term in office. With that experience, what do you make of this time politically?
Crazy town. It's just a bunch of craziness. You just try and do the best with what you have. [It’s] just very hyper partisan and it really shouldn't be that way. At the end of the day, what's best for the voters? That's really what it comes down to. And I think the voters sent some messages [about] being a Democrat that the party has to notice. Look at the ratings and where they are right now, something’s got to change somewhere.
You've been in elected office in various capacities over the last decades. How has that shaped your priorities as sheriff?
In the Legislature you're one of 120. You've got to get bills through multiple committees, hopefully the governor signs it. On a city council you're one of five. Hopefully, you get two other votes. The sheriff, you’re a party of one. A caucus of one. You can get a lot of things done and really say things that others can't say. If the voters dislike me, they can vote me out. That’s the litmus test. A lot of times people go along and don't want to speak up, but I don't have a problem doing that.
