The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department works hard to balance the public’s right to know with its right to privacy. Fortunately, the California legislature and courts continue to set forth cases and laws which guide the Department in determining what documents should and should not be disclosed.

Unfortunately, the recent experiment conducted by KGTV had inherent flaws and inaccuracies in its design, implementation, and reporting that resulted in the San Diego County Sheriff's Department’s being unable to achieve a satisfactory score. For example, the Department lost 40 points for failing to respond to Heidi Ortiz in five distinct categories. This is simply inaccurate. On December 11, 2006 the Department sent a two page letter to Ms. Ortiz c/o Kristin Castillo P. O. Box 383, 3639 Midway Dr., Suite B, San Diego, CA 92110-5254, and Marti Emerald brought a copy to the Department when she came seeking a response from the Department. Further, in that letter, the Department indicated to Ms. Ortiz that the Sheriff did not have an employment contract with the County of San Diego, as he is an elected official. Because the Department could not produce a contract, it lost another 10 points. After incorrectly subtracting the 50 points, the best that the Department could have scored on this experiment was a 50 (D). However, there were other categories that were also scored inappropriately.

It should also be noted that the December 11, 2006 letter from the Sheriff’s Department requested additional information from Ms. Ortiz, so that we could comply with her public record request. She chose not to respond. However, within twenty four hours of getting clarification from Ms. Emerald, the Department produced those documents that were responsive to the request and required to be produced under the California Public Records Act.

In closing, it is one thing for your station to state that the San Diego County Sheriff's Department failed a flawed experiment; however it is totally inappropriate and unprofessional to insinuate that the Department somehow violated the law. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department strives to provide the highest quality of public service, and will continue to evaluate ways of improving on this commitment.