NO LAW NORTH OF THE KLAMATH

Significant Regional Breakdown Of Law And Order May Be Here Already

by Bob Walsh

There isn't a lot in Del Norte County.  Some commercial fishing, out of Crescent City.  A fair bit of hunting / fishing and tourism.  Still some logging.  A large state prison.  The locals all agree, there is no law north of the Klamath, the river that denotes the southern boundary of the county.

The Sheriff's Office currently has only 60 employees.  At least 24 have left the agency since January of last year.  There are 30,000 legal residents of the county.

The Armory Sergeant managed to damn near shoot a deputy who was turning in his weapon on his last day of employment.  The Sgt. suffered no consequences of the negligent discharge, though he has since retired.

A correctional officer in the jail pumped so much tear gas into a cell in the women's jail that it effected people in other sections of the jail.  He left the agency after being cited in Oregon for impersonating an officer.  

Back in 2014 the District Attorney was removed from office by the County Board of Supervisors after he was disbarred.

Erik Apperson, who was the Sheriff until last month, abruptly resigned with two years left on his term.  He is now a consultant with the state POST Commission.   

The just departed sheriff, Erik Apperson, has hired 13 people in the last 18 months.  One was sworn in without a psych eval, which is required by law.  Another was hired who flunked his psych eval.  

The current sheriff, Randy Waltz, who was formerly the undersheriff, has said that there are now procedures in place to prevent this from happening in the future.

It is hard to hire for law enforcement in the boondocks.  Pay is mediocre.  Training is marginal.  Many employees hand around just long enough to not be rookies before they move on.  It is, however, a shame when much of a county acknowledges that the law enforcement infrastructure in the county doesn't work worth a diddly damn.