Angels Camp, CA…We sat down for a few minutes Monday morning with Calaveras County Coroner Kevin Raggio. The county is discussing combining the Sheriff and Coroner Departments. Roughly half of California counties have done so. Conventional wisdom dictates that combining departments may drive cost savings. In Calaveras County however the Coroner says it may double or triple yearly costs and necessitate significant capital improvement costs if the county has to construct facilities to house the department.

Another reason not to combine the departments in this era of increased scrutiny of law enforcement is potential increased liability in cases of officer involved shootings or deaths in law enforcement custody.

If merged Law Enforcement would structurally be in charge of investigating and reporting on themselves. In the current departmental structure it is not only a completely separate department in charge of autopsies and causes of death it is a different elected official.

Our conversation is above.