New Sacramento sheriff says homelessness among top priorities — here’s what he’ll do
Jim Cooper, a former California assemblyman from Elk Grove, was formally sworn in at a public ceremony Friday as Sacramento County’s 37th sheriff, becoming the first elected Black sheriff in county history.
Cooper spent 30 years in the Sheriff’s Office. In 2010, Cooper ran for sheriff against Scott Jones but lost. He left the Sheriff’s Office to serve for eight years in the Assembly.
The ceremony for Cooper, who took office a week ago when Jones departed, was held Friday before several hundred supporters and Sheriff’s Office personnel in the University Union Ballroom on the campus of Sacramento State.
“It’s humbling I’m grateful to the voters,” Cooper told The Sacramento Bee in an interview before Friday’s ceremony. “They spoke very loudly, and they wanted change.”
Cooper won election in the June primary, beating Undersheriff Jim Barnes. Jones chose not to run for re-election and endorsed Barnes as his successor. Jones made an unsuccessful run for California’s Third District congressional seat, coming in third in the June primary to Republican Kevin Kiley, who won the seat in the November general election run-off with Democrat Kermit Jones.
After federal judges Morrison England and Troy Nunley administered the oath of office Friday, Cooper spoke to the audience about how his daughters asked him not to run for sheriff a second time. They told him to continue his work in the Assembly and avoid a return to law enforcement, which would be more difficult.
“I love law enforcement,” Cooper told the audience. “You can have an instant impact and change someone’s life immediately.”
He thanked the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office. Cooper said he saw a lot of “passion and commitment” in his staff while visiting more than 20 job sites throughout the department over the past several months. He also said he looks forward to working with the county Board of Supervisors and other local elected leaders on the tough issues of the day.
“You never get to where you are without the help of others,” Cooper said. “Throughout my career, no matter where I was, I stood on the shoulders and the backs of others who have helped me get there.”
Cooper told The Sacramento Bee that homelessness would be a top priority in his office. He made the American River Parkway a focus during his campaign, and he co-sponsored legislation to allow authorities to clear the camps off the parkway permanently.
Cooper said being homeless is not a crime, but as sheriff he wants to push the idea of conservatorships to help those mired in homelessness because of mental illness or drug addiction.
“We know that number is quite large, so how do we help these people,” Cooper told The Bee. “Right now, it’s freezing outside and some folks in our community in our state are OK with (homeless people) having their freedom and walking around with no clothes on, eating out of a trash can.
“We can’t do that.”
Law enforcement isn’t the “end-all-be-all” on the homeless issue, he said, but he wants his office to work in partnership with county and city resources to provide a concerted effort. The sheriff said speaking out about the issue shouldn’t tag anyone as being anti-homeless, despite the rhetoric going around.
“It’s not being anti-homeless, it’s being compassionate with these people,” Cooper said. “It’s being compassionate but firm.”
The issue of homelessness became entangled with violent crime early this year after Barnes and sheriff’s officials described a horrific murder scene in Rancho Cordova, where they say a homeless man brutally attacked a woman.
Emma Roark, a 20-year-old Rancho Cordova woman, was killed in late January in a campsite along the parkway. A homeless man who had been living along the river for several years was arrested and is accused of sexually assaulting and killing her.
Campaign for sheriff
Cooper’s campaign focused on what he called Jones’ failed leadership for the past 12 years at the Sheriff’s Office, painting Barnes as just an extension of Jones.
Jones was in attendance at Friday’s ceremony. Cooper, during the ceremony, thanked Jones for his service and his cooperation over the past several months as the Sheriff’s Office transitioned into a new administration team.
“Scott, thank you for coming; class act,” Cooper told the former sheriff. “Law enforcement is not an easy job to do. It’s a very tough job, a very demanding job.”
Cooper’s pitch to the voters was that his experience in the Legislature allows him to press for tougher laws on domestic violence and other crimes with punishments weakened by voter-approved ballot measures such as Proposition 57.
He also promised his leadership style would favor discussion with opponents rather than confrontation.
“It’s easy to say no and shut people out,” Cooper said. “What I learned in the Legislature is compromise and working with people, talking with other folks who don’t have the same view as me. There’s nothing wrong with that. We can agree to disagree and still have civil conversations.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 11:41 AM.
