Paul Parker, the driving force behind toughening civilian oversight of the San Diego County Sheriff’s and Probation departments in recent years, is stepping away from his post and closing out his second term of service to the volunteer advisory panel.
The executive officer of the county Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLERB, announced his decision in a brief letter of resignation he sent to board members on Monday.
His final day with San Diego County will be next Friday, March 22.
“I would like to thank the CLERB and the County of San Diego for allowing me the privilege to serve in this role,” Parker wrote in his resignation letter. “Through our combined efforts, we have restored CLERB’s credibility and relevancy.”
The review board is not scheduled to meet again until March 26, so Parker apparently has presided over his last meeting of the oversight body. The board chair could call a special meeting to discuss the resignation and Parker’s potential successor.
Parker said he looks forward to working with the review board staff on ensuring a smooth transition in leadership.
The resignation appears to be something of a surprise.
However, Parker has repeatedly pressed the review board to assert more oversight related to the persistent problem of people dying in county jails and has moved to expand the board’s authority to include oversight of jail medical staff to help reduce the number of deaths behind bars.
San Diego County has recorded a high number of in-custody deaths for more than a decade, according to its own records, a problem state auditors said in 2022 was so severe that strict new reforms should be adopted by state lawmakers to reduce fatalities.
So far this year, four people have died in sheriff’s custody. Eighteen people died in San Diego County jails in 2021; there were 20 in-custody deaths in 2022 and 13 jail deaths last year.
Parker said he would like to see the oversight board build on its recent successes, including growing its staff and budget and advocating for expanded duties.
“I encourage you to continue the progress we have worked so hard to achieve,” he wrote. “This can only be done through continued emphasis on transparency, complete independence and faith and trust in the next executive officer.”
Eileen Delaney, who serves as chair of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. The county spokesperson referred questions to the review board leadership, saying it acts as an independent body.
Sheriff Kelly Martinez issued a statement thanking Parker for his contributions to the people of San Diego County.
“We wish him the best in his future endeavors,” spokesperson Lt. David LaDieu said by email. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration and ongoing improvement efforts with CLERB as we continue in our mission to provide the highest quality public safety services.”
San Diego attorney and civilian oversight expert Andrea St. Julian said Parker’s decision to resign leaves San Diego in a difficult position.
“He is a visionary who is extremely experienced, coming not only from an oversight background but a law enforcement background,” said St. Julian, who is also co-chair of the San Diegans for Justice community group. “He is really excellent, and his resignation will really be a loss.”
Two years ago this month, San Diegans for Justice issued a lengthy report assessing the review board’s strengths and weaknesses. It concluded with 70 recommendations aimed at improving the board’s operations.
But instead of pushing those recommendations up to the county Board of Supervisors all at once, St. Julian said county-appointed review board members opted to forward only a handful of the suggestions at a time.
“CLERB took the conservative approach of only moving forward a few of the lesser important recommendations to the county Board of Supervisors, even though they originally said they were supportive of 68 of the 70 recommendations,” she said.
“Any leader of an organization would be disappointed about a decision to move slowly, just to move slowly,” St. Julian added. “I can see that being very demoralizing to anyone trying to move forward.”
Former review board member Buki Domingos said Parker’s priority was always holding county law enforcement accountable.
“Since the board’s formation in 1992, Paul has been the most progressive and community-focused executive officer,” said Domingos, who left the panel in 2021.
The resignation comes as the review board under Parker’s direction has pushed to hold both Martinez and Chief Probation Officer Tamika Nelson more accountable to the public they serve.
Although the review board is strictly advisory — neither the sheriff nor the chief probation officer is required to implement its recommendations — Parker has consistently pressured the board to do more to increase transparency and accountability across the two departments.
The office budget and staff have grown under his supervision, the result of months of pressure he put on county supervisors to do more to promote civilian oversight of its law enforcement shops.
This year, the CLERB is staffed with 10 positions and supported with a nearly $2 million budget. Five years ago, the board had five positions and a budget of less than $1 million.
Parker also was successful in getting the review board moved from the county’s Public Safety Group to its Finance and General Government Group. Parker has said the shift was significant because it removed law enforcement from overseeing his office.
In addition to pushing for authority to oversee jail medical staff, Parker sought to add auditing standards to review board operations.
Under that model, the oversight board would have the authority to access Sheriff’s and Probation department records — rather than accept whatever documentation the agencies choose to turn over.
Parker also requested authority to review deaths of people on probation to make sure they were being properly monitored by their officers. Unless taken as potential homicides or medical examiner’s cases, no one currently investigates deaths of people on probation.
He also said too many complaints to the review board are dismissed because they are filed anonymously. To prevent that, last year he recommended rewriting the rules over who can submit a complaint.
Parker or his staff also are now called to the scene of investigations that are likely to result in CLERB reviews. For years, the oversight board was not able to begin its independent probes until the Sheriff’s Department referred the matter — often months after the fact.
The Sheriff’s Department also began publicly announcing jail deaths under Parker’s watch. For years, the department would wait until internal investigations were completed — again, often for months — before alerting the public to in-custody deaths.
And the outgoing CLERB executive has repeatedly pressed Sheriff Martinez to release internal reports from the sheriff’s Critical Incident Review Board.
The grand jury, the state auditor and other independent experts have all made similar recommendations. During her campaign, Martinez said she would release the records, but she reversed course after her 2022 election.
Parker, 53, is a former police officer who migrated to medical examiner’s offices in Arizona and Nevada before coming to San Diego County to run the review board in 2017.
One of his first notable decisions was to summarily dismiss 22 death investigations that were more than a year old under the theory that they were no longer under the review board’s legal jurisdiction.
Parker left the following year for a senior position with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. But he returned as the CLERB executive officer in 2020, after a Democratic majority was elected to the county Board of Supervisors.
“I’m not afraid to rock the boat, because I think it needs to be rocked,” Parker told The San Diego Union-Tribune last year. “I cannot be worried about losing my job; people are losing their lives.”
Parker was paid just under $148,000 plus benefits in 2022, according to the Transparent California online database of public-sector salaries.
