[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 12 (Thursday, February 10, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E109-E110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               STRAIGHT SHOOTER: SHERIFF CHARLIE PLUMMER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 10, 2000

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, for the past 13 years, California's Alameda 
County has been blessed to have a tough, hard-working, straight-talking 
sheriff named Charles Plummer.
  The January 2, 2000 issue of The Argus carried an excellent profile 
of this outstanding public servant, that I would like to submit, in 
part, in the Record. It is a model for those interested in law 
enforcement and public service throughout the nation.
  I would like to especially commend Sheriff Plummer for his stance on 
gun control and the need for reasonable regulation. I am proud to note 
that this has been an issue that has moved him from the Republican 
party to the Democratic party.

Controversial Alameda County Sheriff Charlie Plummer Often Talks Tough, 
                       But He Also Walks the Walk

                           (By Josh Richman)

       A framed photo on Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer's 
     office wall depicts him shouting at someone behind a police 
     crowd-control line. The caption: `` `Cause I'm the sheriff, 
     that's why. If you don't like it, get outta here!' ''
       That's Charles Clifford Plummer to a T. He'll hear your 
     concerns, take suggestions and perhaps even follow them, but 
     never forget he's the boss.
       The affable-but-tough-talking lawman has carried a badge 
     for 37 years and, at age 69, shows little sign of slowing 
     down. His department's main duties include policing the 
     county's unincorporated areas, running the county jails and 
     coroner's bureau, and protecting county courts.
       Plummer also is a sharp-dressed, number-crunching CEO who 
     runs his 1,650-person-strong, $145.7 million agency like a 
     business. He has a taste for pricey cigars, and he donned a 
     tuxedo rather than a uniform for his swearing-in ceremony. He 
     rules from a 12th-floor corner office choked with 
     international police memorabilia and boasting panoramic 
     vistas of Lake Merritt and the hills.
       Some of his deputies accuse him of tyrannical bullying, but 
     most officials and fellow lawmen praise his bluntness.
       ``He is old-school in the sense that when he gives his 
     word, he keeps it,'' California Attorney General Bill Lockyer 
     said, adding that Plummer's post as president of the 
     California Sheriff's Association ``is an indication of the 
     high regard that other elected sheriffs have for his 
     leadership and abilities.''


                         Values and work ethic

       Plummer was born Aug. 17, 1930, in Fort Bragg. His parents 
     separated when he was six and he grew up in his maternal 
     grandmother's home, where he said he learned ``values and a 
     work ethic that have
       He was on high school football, track and basketball teams, 
     performed in the band and drama club, and was senior class 
     president. He took a job as a water well-digger at age 10; 
     while in school, and at Santa Rosa Junior College, he worked 
     as a gardener, shingle mill worker, lumber, camp rigger, 
     apple picker, construction worker, vacuum cleaner salesman 
     and hospital attendant.
       He planned to become a mortician, but a California Highway 
     Patrol officer picked him up hitchhiking and talked him into 
     using his gregarious nature and large size to advantage as an 
     officer.
       The Berkeley Police Department was ``the best in the United 
     States, and that's why I wanted to go there,'' Plummer said, 
     adding that it seemed like ``the West Point of all police 
     work.'' He joined in 1952 and served there for 24 years, 
     acting as field commander during some of the fiercest student 
     demonstrations and riots of the 1960s and early 1970s. He 
     reached the rank of captain in 1969 and was appointed acting 
     chief in 1973.
       He became chief of the Hayward Police Department in 1976. 
     Ten years later he ran for sheriff, and his opponent's 
     withdrawal from the race led to his uncontested election. He 
     took the department's reins in January 1987, the first 
     outsider to hold the job in more than 40 years.


                        Changing the department

       Plummer promised to dismantle the department's ``old boy 
     network'' by replacing favoritism with the work ethic, and by 
     threatening dire consequences for deputies who lied, used 
     racist or sexual slurs, accepted gratuities or took drugs.

[[Page E110]]

       He also set about having the department accredited by as 
     many agencies as possible, believing it would bring increased 
     efficiency, better eligibility for state and federal grants 
     and more protection from civil lawsuits.
       The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement 
     Agencies accredited his department. The American Correctional 
     Association and the National Committee on Correctional Health 
     Care accredited his jails. The American Society of Crime 
     Laboratory Directors accredited his crime lab, and the U.S. 
     Department of Justice accredited his bomb squad. The 
     certificates hang in his office lobby, tokens of his proudest 
     achievements.
       Earning accreditation is like ridding a home of termites, 
     he said--it's expensive up front, but you do it to save money 
     later. Even so, he often has had to go toe-to-toe with other 
     county agencies to vie for dollars.
       Plummer has fought budget battles with the same intensity 
     he brought to controlling riots on Berkeley's streets, He 
     once threatened to close North County Jail rather than cut 
     investigators, crime prevention and animal control. In 1996, 
     asked to trim $6.9 million from his budget, he instead asked 
     for $3 million more. ``I can't afford to cut one person, so 
     why go through the charade?'' he asked at the time.
       He doesn't always win. The 1992-93 budget required 300 
     layoffs, and Plummer had to pink-slip a whole academy class--
     his lowest moment, he said.
       ``That hurt me worse than the riots hurt me in Berkeley,'' 
     he said. ``It just tore my heart out. We have warned them it 
     could happen, but that doesn't make it any easier when you're 
     having a graduation and you can't give them badges.''
       After proclaiming it a ``chainsaw massacre,'' he mustered a 
     crowd, hefted a
       The budget crunches spurred Plummer to view his department 
     as a business. Assuming that a fully-staffed jail is an 
     economically efficient jail, he sought more contracts to 
     house other agencies' inmates in Alameda County. Plummer's 
     jails have held San Francisco county inmates, state parole 
     violators, federal prisoners from U.S. Marshals in California 
     and Hawaii, and illegal immigrants from the federal 
     Immigration and Naturalization Service.
       He acknowledges that those and other contracts, such as 
     providing security for county hospitals and other facilities 
     or events, create a lot of overtime. But his budget always 
     covers it, he noted: ``I've never brought in a budget in the 
     red in my life.''
       He has positions for 920 sworn deputies, 37 of which are 
     now vacant. He hired San Leandro Police Chief Robert Maginnis 
     as an assistant sheriff last August specifically to recruit. 
     Some said Maginnis was being groomed as a likely successor, 
     but Plummer said Undersheriff Curtis Watson already has 
     earned that mantle by paying his dues within the department.
       ``Also, I would never support anyone who would not agree to 
     give at least two terms,'' he said, because he believes a 
     sheriff needs at least eight years to be an effective leader.


                           Republican no more

       Plummer ended his lifelong GOP membership in June, 
     reregistering with a ``no party'' designation. Why?
       ``Guns,'' he said.
       As sheriff, he enacted new requirements for concealed 
     firearm permits--a demonstrated need, a psychiatric exam, $1 
     million of liability insurance and qualification at the 
     sheriff's shooting range. State Sen. Don Perata, D-Alameda, 
     who earned a permit, wants to include such mandates in a plan 
     for statewide licensing and registration for gun owners. 
     Plummer approves, explaining, ``we're not really anti-gun, 
     we're pro-gun-responsibility.''
       But when he heard U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Georgia, speak on 
     the radio against gun control earlier this year, he had an 
     epiphany.
       ``I thought, `I don't want my name associated with that 
     crap,' ``Plummer said.
       He would rather associate with his wife of 51 years, Norma, 
     their three children--two of whom followed him into law 
     enforcement--and eight grandchildren. He also associates with 
     the Boy Scouts, the Rotary and other groups, which he called 
     ``great therapy for me''--talking to people outside his work 
     helps him avoid ``burnout'' after so many years of policing, 
     he said.
       His current term will expire in three years, when he's 72; 
     whether he runs again ``will depend on how I feel.'' He 
     admits he'll be ``a little long in the tooth,'' but a recent 
     physical found him fit, and close aides have agreed to tell 
     him if they think he's slowing down.
       ``If I think I'm taking anything away from this 
     organization, I'm outta here,'' he said.

     

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