Worth viewing in the current Sheriff’s Roundup is the opening 10-minute segment featuring the county’s Co-Response Team: Deputy James McKarrell and Behavioral Wellness outreach worker Bradley Crable. As the department’s behavioral scientist Dr. Cherylynn Lee describes the positive effect the team has had on both deputies and citizens, the video rides along with them as they head into bushes and homes, talking people down from threats and concerns, perceived or real. Sheriff Bill Brown narrates that the Co-Response Team, who defuse the situations they respond to and allow deputies to proceed to other calls, has no permanent funding, but a recent grant has funded the program for three years.
As well, the video shows rows of green in greenhouses and bales of dried cannabis under confiscation, remembers the 1/9 Debris Flow victims a year later, and presents Isla Vistans graduating from the hamlet’s first Citizen’s Academy and the retirement of K-9 Aco.
The Roundup is produced by department media specialist Paul Westmacott and Kelly Hoover, who noted it’s the 26th she’s made. Hoover will be leaving the Sheriff’s Office after six years as its public information officer to become the City of Goleta’s community relations manager on August 26.
