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Sheriff outlines staffing, culture and homelessness enforcement plans after promotions and outreach
Summary
Sheriff Vandercamp used the Jan. 27 retreat to describe personnel changes, a new mentorship and promotion process, and a stepped approach to addressing unsanctioned camping on public lands; he said promotions and mentoring are intended to stabilize patrol staffing and that enforcement will be paired with services.
At the county retreat Jan. 27, Sheriff Vandercamp briefed commissioners on personnel work, culture changes and enforcement plans for unsanctioned camping on county and federal lands.
Vandercamp described changes to promotions and internal oversight: "We welcomed Aaron Wells from Redmond Police to join as our undersheriff... He brings almost 20 years of experience as a captain in Redmond." The sheriff said his office changed the promotion process to a condensed, multi-stage panel that included community members and produced higher candidate engagement.
He said the office is launching mentoring, wellness and staffing initiatives to reduce burnout among deputies and to create clearer pathways for corrections deputies to move into patrol. Vandercamp said a targeted hiring and lateral recruitment push is under way and that he expects multiple patrol hires during spring: "I'm very excited to see what we get this next round... I wanna have many people in place by summer."
On unsanctioned camping and enforcement in federal lands north of Bend, the sheriff described a progressive, partnership-based approach: first outreach and offers of help, second coordinated cleanups and referrals to services, and finally enforcement for noncompliant sites. "One of the feedback pieces I had from our staff was they kinda felt like, hey, I'm a deputy... I'll always be deputy and nobody cared if I ever really do something more with my career. So we have, identified some ideas on how we can have supervisors and command staff find people to mentor within the office and show them other office, opportunities or promotion opportunities," he said, describing both employee-engagement and field strategy.
The sheriff also said his finance and administrative teams are being restructured to improve internal controls and reduce waste. On homelessness in remote public land sites, Vandercamp said county efforts will pair enforcement with solid-waste removal, partner support, and relocation options where possible; he stressed the need for durable community solutions and cross-agency coordination.
Ending: Vandercamp asked for continued support from commissioners for the recruitment and retention strategy, for funds to convert some administrative work into long-term savings, and for patient engagement on multi-agency approaches to remote encampments.
