Sacramento County hires new inspector general, closing gap in law enforcement oversight
Sacramento County has hired a new inspector general to provide independent oversight of the Sheriff’s Office and track investigations of use-of-force incidents and in-custody deaths. The previous inspector general quietly resigned at the end of August.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve Kevin Gardner, who has 31 years of sworn law enforcement experience, including serving as the acting deputy chief of the Sacramento Police Department. Most recently, he served as the interim director for the city of Sacramento’s Office of Public Safety Accountability. Gardner also led the Division of Law Enforcement for the California Department of Justice for two years.
The item was on the consent calendar and, thus, did not come with a presentation. Board chair Patrick Kennedy pulled the item for a short separate discussion before the supervisors formally approved the hire. Gardner told supervisors after the vote that he looked forward to the opportunity “to get back into public service.”
The board’s written agenda for the meeting shows that Gardner was recommended by “all participating panel members” who interviewed candidates. One panel included Sheriff Jim Cooper and law enforcement representatives. The other panel was made up of former and current members of the Community Review Commission, a body that collaborates with the inspector general and works to increase transparency in the Sheriff’s Office.
Gardner will replace Francine Tournour Kerridge, whose contract expired Aug. 31. The county did not issue a public notice when Kerridge left the post, the Sacramento Observer first reported in January. The Long Beach Press-Telegram reported that she became director of police oversight for the city in Los Angeles County in September.
Kerridge’s departure left a gap in police oversight in the county — one of several related to high turnover in this office. After Rick Braziel left the position in November 2018, the post was vacant for just over a year. At the end of 2019, the county announced Mark Evenson would take on the role. Evenson resigned in February of 2022. Kerridge was appointed almost seven months later in August.
Kerridge filed a first draft of the year-end report covering her work between Aug. 1, 2022, and Aug. 31, 2023. She wrote in the document that during that period, her office received 44 allegations of misconduct. She also reviewed the two cases over the year in which sheriff personnel shot and killed people. Nine people died in the Sheriff’s Office’s custody. When Kerridge submitted the report, all the investigations were still open.
The Office of the Inspector General also handled 28 inquiries from the public that did not involve reports of misconduct.
The two people shot and killed by Sheriff’s Office personnel within the timeframe of the report were Jaime Naranjo, 55, and Vincent Martinez, also 55. Naranjo was suicidal when his wife called law enforcement for help. Martinez had a shotgun and was in a house threatening to kill his girlfriend; his daughter had called deputies. Video released by the Sheriff’s Office shows that deputies opened fire within seconds of Martinez walking outside, and that he was not pointing the gun at deputies or at his girlfriend when he was shot.
On Feb. 8, The Sacramento Bee submitted a Public Records Act request for any letter of resignation from Kerridge, as well as other documents related to the Office of the Inspector General. The county has released some documents in response to the open request, but not the letter of resignation.
