Santa Barbara County sheriff candidate Juan Camarena has been in the Sheriff’s Office for more than 23 years and is passionate about his work. His campaign takes on four-term Sheriff Bill Brown — first elected in November 2006 — who Camarena says may not be the right option in a new era in which the country’s eyes are laser-focused on law enforcement.
“About eight years ago, I noticed that our department was being stagnant and reactive. We were not moving forward; we were not evolving with the times or trying to be at the forefront of change,” Camarena said. “Time to bring a new leadership to evolve in these challenging times.”
Camarena would be the county’s first Latino sheriff — or at least its first in the modern age. The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office is one of the oldest law enforcement agencies in the state, and since it was founded in 1850 after becoming part of American territory, there have been 17 sheriffs oversee the department, with only one — Sheriff Nicolas A. Covarrubias, who served two terms in the 1860s-70s — of Hispanic descent.