Meet San Diego County Sheriff Candidate Charles 'Chuck' Battle

SAN DIEGO, CA — Voters will help decide who should serve as the next sheriff of San Diego County in the June 7 primary election.

Charles "Chuck" Battle, a retired sheriff's sergeant, is among the seven candidates vying to replace retired Sheriff Bill Gore. Gore stepped down from the position in February after heading the San Diego County Sheriff's Department for 12 years.

In March, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors appointed Anthony Ray to temporarily fill the seat until voters elect a new sheriff. Ray, a 30-year veteran of the department, was sworn in as interim sheriff in April.

The top two vote-getters in the primary will face off in the Nov. 8 election.

Patch sent questionnaires to the candidates in the race. These are Battle's responses.

Charles "Chuck" Battle

Age (as of Election Day)

72

Party Affiliation

Republican

Family

I have a daughter, 22, and a son, 51

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

I graduated Cum Laude from National University with a Bachelor of Public Administration with an emphasis in Criminal Justice

Occupation

I own a private investigator business which I originally started in 1987. I still consult occasionally with counsel for officers on use-of-force cases on an ad hoc and mostly pro bono basis. I have worked on both sides of the law enforcement profession as a California peace officer since 1972. Prior to that, I served our community and our country in the U.S. Navy as an MA-2. That's a military security specialist and investigator in my case. Concurrently, and thereafter, I was a police officer, locally, with SDPD for 14 years, the first three and change I worked for free as a reserve officer to build my resume while still working full time for the U.S. Navy. I spent the succeeding five years doing criminal defense investigative work and was trained and worked in performing accident reconstruction work. I resumed serving in a peace officer capacity in 1991 with our local county sheriff's office, working in and supervising deputy sheriffs. Seven of those years were spent in detentions. The remainder of my time was spent diligently working in a contract city patrol station where I volunteered for and was given the roles and responsibilities for both the Administrative Sergeant and the Traffic Sergeant's positions. I was honorably retired from the sheriff's department in 2007 as a law enforcement sergeant. The last 15 years, the first seven of which were full-time, I was asked by the principal partner to serve as a defense investigator, but this time it was exclusively in the defense of peace officers and federal agents who were accused of wrongdoing by their various employers. I have 50 years worth of relevant, and specialty, law enforcement experience that uniquely qualifies me for excelling in this office.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

N/A

Campaign website

Website

Why are you seeking elective office?

Many of the baby boomer generation still remember and will resonate to the message in the inauguration address given by President John F. Kennedy: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." While many who have served in California as peace officers have fled to other states, I refuse to cut and run because of the craziness the people have allowed to compound and to proliferate here. Someone has to step up and change the program. One man CAN make a difference. I have made a difference by innovating and implementing changes for the better in every position I have ever held. I intend to be the man who continues to execute with that work ethic.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am a critical thinker. I have ready answers to questions, or I quickly find a way to get you the correct answers. I have vision. I can usually suggest solutions to even the most difficult problems. I am an achiever. I think outside the box. I cannot be bought, intimidated or dissuaded from doing that which I know to be the right thing. I have very good discernment. Discernment is best learned the old fashioned way, by having attempted and failed at many different things until such time as future failures become scarcer and farther between. I don't have any quit in me, none.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

Failed is a harsh characterization. A certain aptitude is necessary to lead a law enforcement group. You can put the nicest people in charge, but if they don't have the proper aptitude for the leadership of cops, they should not and cannot be expected to succeed at the levels the profession demands of them, or to the levels the community should want them to achieve so as to make a significant difference in the levels of service provided. The sheriff needs to be a stand up individual, who will in all ways uphold the law and the constitution, putting the needs of the people above his own political needs, and/or desires to be popular with the media.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

We are currently suffering from the worst officer recruitment and retention levels ever. The millennial slug of demographics is soon going to eclipse the baby boomer generation as the largest slug of demographics from which we'd need to source our backfill for our members who are now retiring and leaving law enforcement at a faster and faster rate. The attraction to law enforcement for millennials isn't the same as it was for boomers. Therefore, we cannot realistically expect to use the same old tactics we used on boomers to attract a market that doesn't hold the same values or interests. At the same time, we don't have the money to offer the highest salaries to potential new recruits, and even if we did, the Board of Supervisors aren't elected — much less re-elected — for paying out much larger shares of the taxpayer's money to the department that provides public safety. We have been understaffed for too long. The department has had to adapt, improvise and overcome to being short on staff for far too long. The low-dollar solution to the retention part of the problem in any case is obvious. We are critically short staffed. Why does admin insist on making too many things that shouldn't be a termination of employment event? What's the connection? Morale. New hires are encouraged to join an organization of cops by word of mouth. If an employee's morale is low, does that employee tell his or her friends to sign up where they work? What causes low morale in a law enforcement organization? The perception that people are not treated fairly is huge. When deputies perceive they are not being treated fairly, they are not going to want to participate at the levels they would if they felt appreciated and cared for by management. This is such an obvious fix. It takes courage for a sheriff or chief to stand up and back his people in situations that involve special interests and the media demanding "justice" for every controversial incident involving sworn staff that are yet to be fully investigated. A leader has to address the public and explain what he can given the nature of the case, but he should only release that which he can legally and ethically divulge at that particular stage of the investigation to preserve the due process rights of all involved. Too many leaders today simply make hasty, careless remarks to the press not caring that they have prematurely thrown their officers under the bus so they themselves can appear to be the politically correct face of the department. Support your people until it's proven at the conclusion of the process they cannot and will not be supported now that all of the facts are in. This kind of leadership tends to build trust with the staff. And that trust will keep people from retiring or walking away for greener pastures, elsewhere.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

In science there is process by which scientists test to see if a solution they have found for a problem on a small scale will scale up to address a larger issue. As a first level supervisor, I have on many occasions observed breakdowns in a process which were the process to be improved that change would increase efficiency while making for safer working conditions for the staff and inmates. Every place I have ever worked presented many such opportunities. As a new sergeant, I wrote a plan for the tactical deployment of sworn staff during normal operations at a large detentions facility. The issue was when a critical incident arose, staff would respond in a non-directed, therefore, inefficient and unsafe fashion, leaving their posts either under or completely unmanned. Along those lines, as the larger of two detentions facilities on the same mesa, the smaller facility would occasionally call for help from the larger facility to deal with a critical incident on their grounds. The responses from the larger facility were largely disorganized and took far too long to achieve. A good and solid background in military riot control training gave me the ability to write a tactical response plan and gave me the expertise to teach the formations and maneuvers to sworn staff who had never had such training. Response times were reduced to minutes and staffing remained unaffected at critical stations due to attaining these higher levels of planning and control. Work smarter, not harder. Find a way, not an excuse. This kind of work experience scales up nicely in a law enforcement context. Find the right process and apply it. Fine tune it and teach your people what you did and why they will use it to make their jobs easier and safer.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Treat your people fairly and they will support and follow you anywhere.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

Visit my website at battle-for-sheriff.com. Read my position papers for more of my ideas on addressing today's problems. Please note: I am not seeking donations from special interest groups, or from anyone else. Is it even possible for an ordinary American to run for a public office locally without becoming beholding to others for funding? Let's find out, shall we?

Also see:

• San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore Announces Early Retirement
• Anthony Ray Sworn In As Interim San Diego County Sheriff
• 9 Cities Renew Contract With San Diego County Sheriff's Department
• Ballots Sent To San Diego County Voters For June Primary Election
• Vote-By-Mail Ballot Drop Box Locations In San Diego County