As residents of Contra Costa County, we deserve a Sheriff who can be entrusted to provide robust service and justice to our communities while adhering to ethical benchmarks & upholding integrity for the office. Over the course of David Livingston's tenure as Chief of Police for the City of Concord and as Sheriff for Contra Costa County, this ideal has not been fulfilled.

As Chief of Police for Concord, the agency suffered from discord off several lawsuits over sexual harassment. Allegations of unfairness and discriminate treatment towards women officers marred a beacon of the law enforcement community (See the following links: https://www.mercurynews.com/2009/08/10/female-officer-sues-concord-police-department-for-sexual-harassment/ AND https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2009/12/02/female-officer-sues-concord-police-department-for-sexual-harassment-2/)

While managing Concord Police, Livingston quashed a legitimate investigation spearheaded by a qualified managerial officer into allegations of fraudulent overtime by the Concord Police Officers Association President. After much evidence suggested there was fraud, Livingston ordered a fellow captain to cancel this serious inquiry so as to obtain the association's endorsement for his 2010 bid for Contra Costa County Sheriff. Doing such raises plenty of ethical questions, which is a concern many officers at Concord Police shared (See the following: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2010/03/05/borenstein-huge-overtime-for-concord-police-union-chief/)

As Sheriff of Contra Costa County, he stated that many of his deputies were leaving in droves due to limited compensation, even though he himself earns over $200,000 in benefit compensation & several staffers worked numerous overtime hours to honor an ICE contract that had been in existence to house immigrants at West County jail in 2010. To suggest deputies were "leaving in droves" over lack of compensation, one which could have been improved without the costly expenses to house immigrants over an extended period, indicates mismanagement of resources. He was voted in to be a local law enforcer, not the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (See this link: https://patch.com/california/sanramon/deputies-leaving-contra-costa-county-droves-sheriff-warns). His inability to prioritize spending is another reason for why he's no longer suitable for the Sheriff role.

The biggest scandal, though, to rock Sheriff Livingston's tenure is an investigation by the California Department of Justice into how he managed the immigration detention wing at the West County jail in Richmond. Despite his internal investigations revealing everything was okay, the CA DOJ noted unsanitary conditions for immigrants housed at West County, like detainees defecating in biohazard bags, lengthy waits for health services, restricted or zero due process liberties (i.e. to speak to a lawyer), poor staff training on cultural sensitivity and other areas t to address immigrant detainee needs (several inmates reported being berated at and cursed by staff, which reinforced trauma they suffered in Latin America), understaffing the department so they could not handle the large immigrant population at West County, excessive lockdowns for immigrant detainees, limited educational opportunities and more. On top of that, the exorbitant costs attributed to his housing immigrant detainees for over seven years has stretched the county budget. On top of that, Livingston undermined the CA DOJ's investigation as many immigrant detainees were shipped elsewhere right as they were to be interviewed by the CA DOJ. This abusive mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility are unacceptable for our county. The ICE contract was terminated not due to financial constraints but this startling revelation of degrading treatment to prisoners....degradation so awful that achieving the goal of rehabilitation seems implausible (See pages 99-120 via https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/publications/immigration-detention-2019.pdf)

As reported by the news, ending the ICE contract did not improve relations with the community (See: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/07/13/opinion-termination-of-ice-contract-wont-end-protests/)

In recent news, Livingston has now defied SB-1421 in releasing misconduct personnel records despite courts upholding that law's intentions of transparency for law enforcement. This greatly jeopardizes the community's right to know if their taxpayer dollars are spent on quality policing or corrupt law enforcement (See: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2020/01/24/does-contra-costa-sheriff-flout-public-records-law-news-organizations-allege-in-court-papers-that-he-does/?fbclid=IwAR359IJrbl2_rifKalAHflBpiQSWiLQIHDCCsBFnAC2dZIoKPVOqcWEm4MM)

It is for these reasons and others that we join the chorus of several others (https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Rights-groups-seek-resignation-of-Contra-Costa-13686708.php) in demanding that Sheriff Livingston resign his post effective immediately and that the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors appoint a replacement who will restore integrity and public trust at the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office.