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E-Mail Forum – 2021 |
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RPOA President Ben Therriault Takes on Contra Costa Sheriff Livingston
March 16, 2021 |
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| Richmond Police union boss aims to unseat sheriff in Contra Costa County
Rachel Swan
March 16, 2021
Updated: March 16, 2021 4 a.m.
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Richmond Police Officers Association President Benjamin Therriault is running for Contra Costa County sheriff.
Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle
A police union boss in Richmond has made his bid to unseat the longtime sheriff of Contra Costa County, days after a high-profile shooting by a sheriff’s employee in Danville.
Benjamin Therriault, 38, is no outsider — California law requires that sheriff candidates have law enforcement certification. He has done police work for years, having served in the U.S. Air Force Security Forces before joining the Richmond Police Department in 2009.
But he is running on a reform platform for the June 2022 election, emphasizing transparency and more robust communication with residents. He described the sheriff’s office as “a position that people need to see, identify with and understand, and have someone be present all the time and engaged with the community. And I just don’t see that currently.”
For Therriault, this message of “engagement” is more a credo than a slogan. In 2011 he moved into the Richmond Village Apartments, a low-income housing complex on South 26th Street and Cutting Boulevard, which at the time was plagued by violent crime, Therriault said.
He lived there rent-free as part of a “Police-in-Properties” program run by the Richmond Housing Authority, but has since moved to Martinez — gang members had started surveilling his home, he said, and he worried for the safety of his 6-year-old daughter.
Such housing choices brought Therriault publicity before he entered politics, with a slew of newspaper articles in 2014. Two years later he was elected president of the Police Officers Association. He’s since cultivated a profile that sharply contrasts with the incumbent, Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston, who won his first term in 2010 and then ran unopposed in 2014 and 2018.
Livingston lives in the small Tri-Valley town of Danville, and is reticent with the news media. He drew criticism for contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold immigrant detainees in the West County Detention Facility in Richmond — a contract that Livingston canceled in 2018. Later that year, the sheriff defended Andrew Hall, the Danville police officer who shot and killed Laudemer Arboleda, an unarmed man experiencing a mental health crisis.
Hall shot and critically injured 32-year-old Tyrell Wilson on March 11, drawing renewed scrutiny toward the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, which contracts with Danville to provide police services. Therriault declined to comment on either of the two shootings. The incident involving Wilson is under investigation.
While it’s unusual for anyone to challenge an incumbent for Contra Costa’s top law enforcement seat, skeptics warn that Therriault is still part of the establishment. State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, is pressing a bill to allow any registered voter to run for sheriff, which could open the door for a civilian to enter the Contra Costa race in 2022.
On the other side, Therriault faces a powerful sheriff with longstanding institutional ties.
Livingston “has strong and widespread support,” said Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, whose district spreads through the center of the county and includes Clayton, Concord, Pleasant Hill, parts of Walnut Creek and unincorporated areas. Mitchoff began her civil service career in 1981, working as an executive secretary for former sheriff Richard Rainey.
Elections for Contra Costa County sheriff are seldom competitive, Mitchoff said, adding that she could not remember a past instance of a challenger beating an incumbent. She has endorsed Livingston three times.
Livingston, meanwhile, told The Chronicle that he is not thinking about the race at this point.
“The election is over a year away,” he said through a spokesperson. “There will be plenty of time for politics later. I choose to spend my time and energy laser focused on one issue: keeping Contra Costa families safe.”
Traditionally, Contra Costa sheriffs have always been white men, which makes Therriault stand out. He is Native American and was raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana.
That doesn’t mean he’s an advocate for people of color who experience police violence, said Antioch City Council member Tamisha Torres-Walker, who grew up in Richmond and runs a nonprofit for formerly incarcerated people.
“In the past he has not shown up for the community or police accountability,” Torres-Walker said.
She noticed a softening of Therriault’s tone earlier this year, when he joined Richmond’s Reimagining Public Safety Community Task Force to discuss possible reforms after the death of George Floyd.
Sitting in the task force meetings, Therriault appears more “forthcoming with information and willing to have conversations about how we can make the job of law enforcement better,” Torres-Walker said.
She added, “It’s a fairly new position for him.”
Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
Written By
Rachel Swan
Rachel Swan covers criminal justice as part of the Chronicle's investigative and enterprise team. She joined the paper in 2015 and has also reported on transportation and politics.
Previously, Rachel held staff positions at the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, where she covered technology, law and the arts. She holds a Bachelor's degree in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.
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