Main story: County’s new sheriff intends to restore the public’s trust
‘Outsider’ Jonsen brings fresh perspective to help change agency’s culture
Photo by Marty Cheek
Newly-elected Santa Clara County Sheriff Robert “Bob” Jonsen in front of the department’s South County Substation in San Martin.
By Calvin Nuttall and Marty Cheek
After a tight race to lead the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, voters have selected Robert “Bob” Jonsen to bring fresh eyes and nearly four decades of law enforcement experience to the job.
Robert “Bob” Jonsen. Photo courtesy Jonsen campaign
Jonsen defeated Kevin Jensen in the Nov. 8 election 230,714 (50.81 percent) votes to 223,363 (49.19 percent) votes to replace former Sheriff Laurie Smith.
The 60-year-old Jonsen will be sworn in on Dec. 12. Previously, he worked as the police chief in Menlo Park and Palo Alto. He got his law enforcement career started in 1986 in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
He considers himself “an outsider” as he steps up to head a sheriff’s department that has faced several scandals and other challenges under Smith’s leadership. She recently resigned after 20 years as sheriff when a jury convicted her in a civil corruption trial involving jail mismanagement and a “pay-to-play” scheme involving gun permits issued by her office. Undersheriff Ken Binder took over in November as the interim acting sheriff.
“I’m not naive to the fact that everyone is anxious about change,” Jonsen said. “It’s been that way in all the organizations I’ve been to, not knowing who I am, not knowing how I operate and what I really want to do with the organization.”
He intends to make it a priority to meet with the various units in the department to let employees know what his plans are in leading them.
“Once they understand my expectations and how I plan to implement accountability measures and really adhere across the board those accountability measures to everybody in the organization, that really starts to settle the anxiety,” he said. “I think from there it’s just a matter of building trust. And that takes a little time. I believe within a year we’re going to be moving forward very quickly, and in a very positive way.”
Morale for the law enforcement profession is at an all-time low, Jonsen believes.
Robert “Bob” Jonsen meets potential voters during the election. Photo courtesy Jonsen campaign
“We experienced it in Palo Alto,” he said. “The pandemic really was the start. Then we had budget reductions, staffing challenges, then we had police reform. But in addition to all of those, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office has also had this controversy, with their leader being tried on corruption charges.”
Jonsen looks forward to taking the department in a fresh direction.
“One of the things that I’m planning on doing really from day one with this organization is letting everyone in the organization know that their career starts new with me today,” he said.
He is no stranger to taking over an office experiencing challenges and poor employee morale. When he worked for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, he took over the Lancaster Station while it was undergoing “tremendous” scrutiny during a Department of Justice review for police practices, protocols, and policies.
When he headed the Menlo Park Police Department, it faced community friction for a variety of reasons. They didn’t have a stable leader for quite some time, and they also had a lot of changes that caused challenges. His leadership style helped him stabilize the organization, increase those community engagements, and morale improved. His work in that city brought in several community policing awards.
As Palo Alto’s police chief for the past four years, and even more specifically the past few years, he dealt with the challenges to the profession such as the COVID-19 pandemic and police reform. These past experiences will help him in bringing back trust to the sheriff’s department.
“Putting in those mechanisms for community trust (and) accountability, I think has really been beneficial for me,” he said. “So I’m not intimidated by what needs to be done. I feel my skill set has positioned me to help navigate this organization, where they want to be, and where the community needs them to be.”
Jonsen’s experiences in rural Los Angeles County have built a solid foundation for his understanding of the unique nature of South Valley compared with the more urban northern areas of Santa Clara County.
Robert “Bob” Jonsen meets potential voters during the election. Photo courtesy Jonsen campaign
“I think that will serve me well in understanding the complexities of all the different areas that we serve and how we can best utilize our resources for delivering those services,” he said.
Building the sheriff’s department’s relationship with the Morgan Hill and Gilroy police departments is vital to improving the trust with the South Valley public, he believes. Morgan Hill Police Chief Shane Palsgrove and Gilroy Police Chief Pedro Espinoza will play a role in building more cooperation between the cities and the sheriff’s department.
He knows both police chiefs personally having worked with them when he was the Palo Alto police chief.
“I’m excited to be going into the sheriff’s role, because as a (police) chief in the county it was great, but there wasn’t a lot of collaboration,” he said. “And especially when the pandemic hit, and police reform hit, and staffing challenges went in, the county collaboration almost fell apart.”
He also takes a lot of pride in the law enforcement academy based in the South County.
“That’s one of the things I’ll be very visible at as well,” he said. “I gotta get my push-ups going so I can keep up with those guys.”
During the past two years after stepping into the role of Gilroy’s police chief, Pedro Espinoza often leaned on Jonsen for advice and considers his peer a consummate professional and champion for police officer wellness and resiliency. He believes Jonsen will bring much law enforcement expertise to Santa Clara County from his years of experience working in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, one of the largest in the nation.
“He was also a chief at two municipalities and understands the needs of mid-size police departments like ours,” Espinoza said. “We often have the need for specialized equipment and resources from the sheriff’s office during critical incidents. They are always willing to assist and I look forward to building on this partnership. I know Bob will keep South County in mind when making policy, personnel, and fiscal decisions. We will also avail ourselves to help the sheriff’s department as we can during this transition. I am truly looking forward to this change.”
The future of the South County Morgan Hill Courthouse has been put into question because the sheriff’s department has not had enough deputies to staff it for security. The pandemic changed procedures including trials, causing courthouses to be consolidated, Jonsen said. Judges are also conducting more virtual trials and meetings, so it’s a matter of space allocation.
“I’m an advocate for staffing what we need to staff, and obviously I think it’s always beneficial, especially for the community,” he said. “When you have these courthouses that are more regional, rather than everybody having to come up to San Jose or wherever it may be, I’ll advocate for retaining what we have in place, but we have to work on some of the staffing issues as well.”
The pandemic caused problems for people getting care while in county jails, he said. It also brings opportunities such as the county moving to using online health services in the correctional environment.
“Instead of transporting people, they’re starting to do more of that, when they can,” he said. “There’s a huge opportunity to bring telehealth for primary care. Probably a vast majority of what people need services for can be done now through telehealth … It’s obviously a cost issue to really roll it out to the magnitude it needs to be, but that’s something I’m going to be advocating for.”
Changes in leadership always come with uncertainty, Jonsen acknowledges, so he wants to make sure he maintains a line of communication with the public.
“I’m always gonna be open. One of the things I’ve always prided myself on is access for people who have concerns,” he said. “I’ll probably be very visible in this upcoming 12 months, throughout this entire county, just getting to know the different communities and the services we provide.”
With 37 years’ experience, Jonsen looks forward to the challenges of serving as the new sheriff.
“I know it sounds weird, but I feel like I’m coming home, because I spent so many years in a sheriff’s organization,” he said. “I’m very excited to come back into a sheriff’s organization, and excited to be part of this particular department.”
Calvin Nuttall is a Morgan Hill resident who has a passion for science and politics.