LAKE COUNTY >> While it”s hard to imagine anyone misses the contentious debates between sheriff candidates that defined the June election, the severe decline in the number of Nixle messages sent out by the Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO) since then hasn”t gone unnoticed.
Throughout the month preceding the election, the LCSO on average sent out a Nixle message two out of every three days, or 19 messages. And with a huge majority of those messages concerning large-scale drug seizures and drug-related arrests, it appeared to some observers the LCSO may have been using the Nixle system to boast of its narcotic eradication efforts, a strong plank in Sheriff Frank Rivero”s platform.
But while in the month following the election the LCSO kept pace with 10 Nixle messages, the numbers have steadily dropped since. In July, the public received seven messages from the LCSO; in August, six; in September, one and in October, three messages were disseminated to the public through the Nixle system.
Four notices over a two-month span, two of which sought help identifying items.
Meanwhile, Lakeport Police Department, which covers a much smaller area than the LCSO, has sent 13 Nixle messages over the same period.
Comparatively, in October 2013, 14 Nixle messages were sent out by the LCSO, showing the decline in communication about the department”s activities isn”t necessarily because the amount of crime under the LCSO”s radar has dropped significantly.
However, even in marijuana harvest season, information on how much crime activity the department is seeing is also limited when attempts to contact Rivero and LCSO Public Information Officer Lt. Steve Brooks, the only person in the department allowed to speak to the press other than the sheriff, have gone unanswered for almost two weeks.
In a letter to the editor, Cobb resident Michael Horner questioned the discrepancy in the LCSO”s communication with the public.
“It seems we were treated to a new story nearly every day during the June election cycle, even though it was spring and there was no mature marijuana to be eradicated,” he stated. “Daily press releases from the LCSO made sure we viewed daily headlines of the ”marijuana problem.” Could we have been manipulated? ? It”s harvest time after all, busting growers should be easy pickins.”
Although the June election also brought higher restrictions for growing marijuana under Measure N, updates on the county”s neighborhood eradication efforts have been few and far between; the county has sent one press release through Community Development Department Director Richard Coel to detail Measure N”s effectiveness, which came in just 11 days before the election.
While sheriff elect Brian Martin said he wouldn”t want to speak on Rivero”s behalf, he indicated the decline in communication “obviously coincides with the election” Rivero lost in June.”
In describing his own plans for using the system as he assumes the office in January, Martin also hints at Rivero”s misuse of Nixle messages.
“Nixle wasn”t designed to be used as a social media or media relations platform; there”s other things like Facebook and Twitter available for that,” Martin said. Instead, “Nixle was designed as a community notification platform.”
Indeed, in the last seven months, the LCSO has sent out a little more than a dozen messages that could explicitly be considered of future value to the public, such as information on ongoing fraud schemes, the Butts Fire”s evacuation orders or seeking help in identifying stolen property. But three-quarters of the releases sent out by the LCSO concern drug busts, arrests or LCSO Narcotics Task Force activities.
Even when the suspect who fatally shot a Lucerne resident on April 22 was at large, it took the LCSO roughly 16 hours to release information regarding the incident. No follow-up Nixle messages provided information as to whether the suspect was ever caught.
Meanwhile, Sonoma and Napa counties” sheriff”s offices utilize the system much differently by consistently disseminating information on missing persons, policy updates, ongoing investigations, safety alerts and road closures.
Since he began campaigning, Martin has been critical of Rivero”s use of the Nixle system and promised changes to the sheriff”s office”s communication policies, noting that he classifies communication with the public as a high priority.
“The only people the sheriff answers to are the voters in the community,” he said. “I fought hard to get the job and I”ll fight hard to keep it and prove that I deserve it. I think communication is the core of any successful relationship.”
In addition to changing how the office uses the Nixle service, Martin also said he will be adding the Citizen RIMS application to his PIO”s tool belt. The application features live incident and crime mapping and provides detailed information on missing persons, warrants, stolen vehicles and other alerts.
He also said he will be investing staff time into training deputies so they are at liberty to appropriately communicate with the public and press.
As this article was going to press, on the eve of election day and after the LCSO has continued to let calls regarding its decline in Nixle messages go unanswered, the LCSO sent its third message in the last month, which covered in detail an impressive eradication operation that occurred more than a week ago.
