SIBLING SUPPORT?
Last Sunday San Clemente resident and Orange County Deputy Sheriff Erik Mansoor wrote a lengthy commentary in the Orange County Register addressing Interim Sheriff Jack Anderson's proposal to replace sheriff's deputies serving as jailers with civilian correction officers as a cost-cutting measure. Mansoor's commentary appears online HERE, although the Register failed to provide attribution. (Attribution added following my telephone call.) Under Anderson's plan, the deputies displaced would be re-assigned to the field jobs for which they had been trained. The plan seems to make sense from both a fiscal and tactical standpoint. Having highly trained deputies performing the duties of a jailer seems like a poor use of resources.
Unfortunately, the Register failed to identify Erik Mansoor as Costa Mesa former mayor - and current mayor pro tem - Allan Mansoor's brother. It also failed to tell it's readers that Allan Mansoor is an Orange County Deputy Sheriff - and a jailer.
Having read Erik Mansoor's several hundred word commentary offering a modification to Anderson's plan, it seems to me that one could surmise that he is simply trying to protect his brother's cushy job in the jail - a position which provides him the opportunity to play in local politics.
Then I find out later that Erik Mansoor is also a jailer... guess he's trying to protect the "family business".
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 3/18/2008 09:23:00 AM
5 Comments:
If you read Allan’s bio he touts (rather prominently) his amazing law enforcement experience:
In 1993 Allan was hired by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and was assigned to the Men’s Central Jail. Other assignments have included John Wayne Airport, the Sex Offender Notification And Registration (SONAR) Division and patrol in Dana Point and North Operations (includes the unincorporated areas from Santa Ana Heights to Sunset Beach and the unincorporated parts of North Orange County). This experience gave him a good perspective on crime related issues in and around Costa Mesa.
To the un-informed, one could surmise that Allan is a bonafide “TJ Hooker” type cop. To those of us who know him, that could not be further from the truth.
One of the biggest personnel issues’ facing the OC Sheriff’s Department is the lack of motivation numerous deputies (nearing the hundreds) display by not wanting to leave the “cushiness” of jail life and proceed down a career path involving patrol and other street operations. Case and point: The average motivated and career oriented deputy sheriff spends 5-7 years in a jail assignment before being VOLUNTARILY and PERMANENTLY assigned to operations (patrol). Allan has spent 15 years in a jail assignment! The frustration within the department with people like him is further magnified due to the fact that these deputies spent up to 6 months in the academy training to become street cops. A whopping two weeks is spent for jail training.
Not exactly an efficient use of taxpayer dollars by Mr. Fiscal Conservative. Especially when Mr. Little Brother Mansoor touts how much less career jailers would cost.
The “experience” Allan sings about in his misleading bio is a result from department ride-a-long programs instituted to motivate these folks, who are known in law enforcement circles as “deadwood.” In total, he probably has less than 6 months combined experience in these positions. Hardly enough for anyone to gain any “perspective” on crimes affecting Costa Mesa or any other community. In Allan’s case, the ride-a-long experiment was a failure as he promptly, and very willingly, returned to his cushy jail job.
Why do you people in Costa Mesa put up with this kind of misleading politician? I would be interested to hear if he would be willing to modify his bio to indicate he is a career correctional officer, which I might add, is a very honorable profession, and remove the misleading statements. I would also like to know if he will put his money where his (and his brothers) mouth is and voluntarily be the first to take one of these correctional officer positions being contemplated by the current acting sheriff.
Big Dave
big dave, thanks for your perspective and opinion. It's been very clear to those of us who observe him in his elective office that he has very little understanding of real police work and has no understanding at all of what it takes to perform in a law enforcement leadership role. He has consistently ignored the wise counsel of his senior law enforcement leadership in our city on a variety of very important issues, including the need for intervention as well as enforcement when dealing with our gang problem.
OK, as you know Geoff I am not happy with all of Mansoor's political agendas, but I do have to correct things that are taken out of contexts. I know from a very knowledgeable source that one reason someone would stay in a jail position has to do with wanting a stable schedule. As you can imagine, being on the streets has a degree of uncertainty to it. For example, imagine a large traffic accident at the end of your shift. You can't just take off to attend a City Council meeting, you have to stay and deal with the incident on overtime.
There may be a lot of reasons you can find to criticize Mansoor's public policy decisions, but in this case I would have a hard time seeing him beat up over his decision to stay at the jail.
Bruce,
I've commented on his decision to stay in the jail before. He and I discussed it during his first campaign, when he told me he made that choice because if gave him a predictable schedule.
As mentioned in big dave's comment, he's certainly not the only one who has made that choice. I have to agree with big dave that it's a very poor use of resources, but I do agree that all officers should spend time working in the jail early in their careers. My pal, Lee Baca, has perpetuated that practice with the LA Sheriff's Department since taking over a few years ago.
The problem with Mansoor spending virtually his entire career in the jail assignment is that he has very limited exposure to "real" police work. As a result, as mayor and now a council member, he just doesn't seem to grasp the importance of issues as described to him by his senior law enforcement staff. He has ignored recommendations by the past three chief's of police, which certainly didn't serve the city very well.
Thanks for the comment - I always appreciate your thoughtful participation.
big dave - what exactly does Mansoor do in the jail? Do you know? He has been a deputy for 15 years, shouldn't he be a sgt. or something?
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