New Monterey County Sheriff Vows to Audit Crime Lab

Newly sworn in Sheriff of Monterey County, Scott Miller, vows to look into the sta­tus of his crime lab.

Scott Miller was sworn in as the new sher­iff in Monterey County and said he pledged to pro­vide Monterey County res­i­dents with the best pos­si­ble law enforcement.

Miller said he would con­duct a com­plete audit of his depart­ment, includ­ing inter­nal affairs, the crime lab, the evi­dence room and how ser­vice calls are handled.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Department con­sists of more than 400 sworn offi­cers and civil employ­ees. Miller said he real­izes that he will have to make adjust­ments, con­sid­er­ing the department’s bud­get con­straints. It also may mean work­ing smarter with less, and more col­lab­o­ra­tion with other depart­ments, he said.

“We need to work in col­lab­o­ra­tion on all lev­els with other law enforce­ment agen­cies, with community-based groups with local towns and cities and max­i­miz­ing the lim­ited rev­enues we have,” Miller said.

Salinas Police Chief Louis Fetherolf said he would appre­ci­ate the addi­tional collaboration.

“We’ve got mon­u­men­tal issue here, and he gets that as do I,” Fetherolf said. “So, it is going to be putting our heads together to com­bin­ing our resources as much as we can to reduce gang vio­lence and reduce vio­lence in general.”

Miller said he would have his man­age­ment team in place within the next 60 days.

Read more on KSBW.com.