NorCal SO

[NashuaMatt]

Can anyone give me the good, bad and ugly of Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino Sheriff's Office? I have gone to each website and seen their pay/benefits...i'm refering to the personal information about the quality of life, quality of work, reputations and general gists of the public demographics (rural, suburban, urban or just plain old hill billies?).

Any help is truely appreciated, as i've yet to make a trip out there.

[LawyerCop]

Sonoma OK, others avoid...small, very political, very low pay relative to cost of living..All going through bad budget times, and any officer hired in the next 6 months is very likely to be laid off in the future. California law enforcement funding is very unstable right now...suggest you wait to make the move unless you go for a very big department, LASO, Riverside, etc.

Good luck

[deputy x 2]

research by cities

http://www.city-data.com/city/California.html

[df2338]

Do you think riverside or lasd are stable enough to handle recession? would it be worth it for an out of stater to try those, praticurlaly riverside?

[IronBruin]

Do you think riverside or lasd are stable enough to handle recession? would it be worth it for an out of stater to try those, praticurlaly riverside?

No. LASD has a huge eligible for hire list right now, probably a year or more wait to get hired there. Riverside is only really accepting apps for FAR east Riverside county which doesn't appeal to many folks.

[df2338]

As to RSO, are they actually HIRING any of those guys, or is it really hard to get on with them. Im looking at the desert anyways, so that isnt a huge issue. I had heard they are cutting there budgt and slashing academies, which does concern me.

[sgttom]

x2. right on target.


Sonoma OK, others avoid...small, very political, very low pay relative to cost of living..All going through bad budget times, and any officer hired in the next 6 months is very likely to be laid off in the future. California law enforcement funding is very unstable right now...suggest you wait to make the move unless you go for a very big department, LASO, Riverside, etc.

Good luck

[NashuaMatt]

Thanks for the heads up. ANy suggestions for that area. I'm open to local agencies too...but only ones with motors, drug units, etc

[geek4life]

yeah, RSO is hiring but have to live/work in the boonies.

[df2338]

Ok thanks. I keep hearing they are cutting budget by 25%, so I worry a bit:). Have a good one.

[jay06]

Sonoma S.O. is a good agency. You mentioned you were interested in motors and a drug unit.. .. they have both. They have two contract cities, which both have motor slots. They are about 275 sworn and have a wide variety of assignments. Pay is good, I think they top out at about 41+ dollars an hour, plus incentive pay for specialty assignments (K9, detectives, FTO, bomb squad, helicopter, swat etc.. ).

Morale is solid and the administration backs their deputies. Equipment is good and all patrol cars have MDT's with GPS and mapping to help you get around the 1600 sq. +/- mile's of territory. The jail and patrol are all under one umbrella, but are separate in the sense that you don't have to start in the jail first. You either apply to work in the jail or the street.

Check out their website,www.sonomasheriff.org, it's pretty informative.

Hope that helps,

Jay

[NashuaMatt]

Thanks for the info Jay, exactly what I was looking for. Do you know anything about Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Marin etc? The general Sonoma area...

[LA Copper]

Hey Matt,
What happened to Southern California? What made you change your mind to start looking north?

[NashuaMatt]

Well I was done looking at CA all together because I couldn't afford/get the time off to take the 3 week course, however I found out that I can test out of it. So it's much cheaper and only takes a day or two. So now i'm going full steam at CA.

I haven't ruled out SoCal but i've found the salaries in NorCal seem to be just as, or almost as good as SoCal and the property seems to be cheaper. I'd like to live in a place a bit quieter and less populated. I've heard about the 8 lane highways (IN EACH DIRECTION!!!!) with grid lock traffic jams, and that's not the kind of place I want to be. I think I would enjoy working for a place like LAPD...just not living there.

[LA Copper]

Eight lane highways, where did you hear that? I've been here 20 years and I haven't found one of those yet.

As far as gridlock goes, every big city in the country has that, wait 'till you see what it's like in the San Francisco area. You just have to know the area and learn how to get around it, which many of us have done.

I guess coming from your area is gonna be a big difference either way, southern or northern California. If you make it out to southern Cal, let me know. Good luck in whichever you chose.

Either way, it beats all the snow and ice storms you've had recently. Were you without power for a while after the last ice storm? My sister lives near Gardner and was without power for a week!

[Long Gun]

Thanks for the info Jay, exactly what I was looking for. Do you know anything about Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Marin etc? The general Sonoma area...

The general area is great for tourism. Lots of outdoor recreation. Lake and Mendo... a bit on the fiddle and banjo side though. Lake is dirtier. Lake SO seems like a training ground/ spring board. If I were young again, I would take Sonoma hands down from your line-up. Santa Rosa is a nice city for its size, and it is not boring. Napa is beautiful and close to other nice places.

As for the LE job, Mendo and Lake would suck. More "Bubba" than usual to deal with (bad guys, not the deputies. The deps are good people with weirdos to deal with.) Mendo and Lake would be good for you to vacation in at best. Coastal Mendo is good for laughs. Fort Bragg and south are the 60's with their hippies frozen in time.

[4FTTY4]

Lake and Mendo have probably half the population of Napa and Sonoma. Napa is a good department, and they just got a brand new office that is awesome. Not a super busy place, but they contract with American Canyon, which borders with Vallejo, so there is usually something happening there.

[CAleo]

Sonoma is a good "gig" in my opinion pays well too.

Mendo, don't know.

Lake not sure about, I heard the pay isn't very good, but I could be wrong.

As Long Gun mentioned, Santa Rosa PD would be nice. Good pay, medium size city, and moderate crime rate.

Fort Bragg, the pay absolutely sucks!!!! And for the cost of living in Fort Bragg the pay is a joke. But I have heard it is a good PD, and a great place to work and live.

Also check out Petaluma PD, Cotati PD and Rohnert Park PD all three are well paid and all are in Sonoma County. By the way Santa Rosa PD is in Sonoma County. In my opinion Sonoma County is the most beautiful place to live and work in California.

I have heard from a few Sonoma County Deputies that it is VERY uncommon to make less than $100,000 your first year on the job.

Hope that helps...good luck.

[NashuaMatt]

Thanks for all the info folks. It's good to hear things from the locals view.

LACopper,

You're deffinately right about the gridlock, Boston is a brutal place to drive. We went 11 or 12 days without power...it was an interesting couple of weeks, but tons of OT and details. I'll let you know when I make it out to CA (which should be in the next couple of months) and maybe we could grab a coffee or something.

[CAleo]

Sonoma is a good "gig" in my opinion pays well too.

Mendo, don't know.

Lake not sure about, I heard the pay isn't very good, but I could be wrong.

As Long Gun mentioned, Santa Rosa PD would be nice. Good pay, medium size city, and moderate crime rate.

Fort Bragg, the pay absolutely sucks!!!! And for the cost of living in Fort Bragg the pay is a joke. But I have heard it is a good PD, and a great place to work and live.

Also check out Petaluma PD, Cotati PD and Rohnert Park PD all three are well paid and all are in Sonoma County. By the way Santa Rosa PD is in Sonoma County. In my opinion Sonoma County is the most beautiful place to live and work in California.

I have heard from a few Sonoma County Deputies that it is VERY uncommon to make less than $100,000 your first year on the job.

Hope that helps...good luck.

By the way El Dorado County is a close second to Sonoma as being the most beautiful place to work....just thought I'd throw that out there!!!

[leif]

tuolumne county wouldn't be too bad on the eyes either. not sure how the pay is though, their website doesn't make it easy to find that info.

[LA Copper]

Matt,
If you make it out here, we'll do better than grabbing a coffee.

[Kilo19]

I used to be a civilian employee with Sonoma Co. Sheriff. And I still have many friends that work there, including some of my academy classmates. In my opinion it is a great place to work. If you have any specific questions you can PM me.