Contra Costa's New Sheriff Takes The Reins
MARTINEZ (KCBS) - The sound of bagpipes and drums filled the Board chamber in Martinez on Monday, as retired Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren Rupf handed the baton over to David Livingston, who said he would focus on the community's budget.
"Really my task is to continue fighting for the budget that we need to provide public safety services to a county of over one million residents," Livingston explained.
KCBS' Dave Padilla Reports:
He was Concord's Police Department chief from 2005 to 2010.
"One thing I intend to do very early on is to do a top-down review of all the operations of the sheriff's office and to make sure that we're as efficient as we possibly can be."
His department provides patrol services to 170,000 county residents, plus four contract cities.
He said it was critical for his department to have an adequate number of deputies on patrol.
"There are about 1,000 employees. We're also a crime lab, we're a coroner's service, we have an air unit, a marine unit, we provide court security," he explained. "So it's critical in addition to all the custody services that we provide that we have adequate deputies on patrol, so that's one of the areas I'll be looking at first."
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