New sheriff in town — Cardenas lines out new administration, plans for monthly meeting with community
January 31 marked the official end of Humboldt County Sheriff Angel Cardenas’ first month serving as the Sheriff and the adjustment from working as a deputy has been both challenging and interesting.
Cardenas said “[Being Sheriff] has been awesome. There’s been so many meetings to attend and there’s so many things to learn and emails, well, you can never get caught up on emails!”
The transition from being out and about the county as a deputy, to spending the days in meetings, networking, and strategizing from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) is certainly different, but is “just a new challenge”.
“I’ve never been a person that stays in the office very long before this, but I look forward to coming in every day,” said Cardenas.
Sheriff Cardenas has been in law enforcement for 21 years, serving only 13 weeks as a deputy in Washoe County before “coming home”. He comes from a hard-working family, as he is not the only sheriff in the family. Cardenas’s brother, Milo Cardenas, is the Sheriff of Morrill County in Nebraska. Cardenas is also the only one of seven siblings to stay in Humboldt County.
“I think the reason I’m here is because this is a great community. This is a good town—a good place to raise a family,” said Cardenas.
Being active and present in the community is a big proponent of the future of the HCSO, according to Cardenas. From the very beginning when he decided to run for Sheriff, Cardenas has endorsed open communication both within the department and with the rest of the community.
“I’ve tried to meet with a lot of agencies and a lot of department heads so we can come up with ideas on how best we can help our community. How do we best serve the community?”
When Cardenas was elected, the Sheriff’s department underwent restructuring with retirements and changes in administration taking place. Cardenas, advocating for a “promote-within” mentality, appointed Damon Kuskie as Undersheriff, Jeremy Peters as Captain of the Detention Center, and Sean Wilkin as Captain of the Patrol Division.
Cardenas has worked with Kuskie, Wilkin and Peters for many years and trusts that they understand the needs of the community.
“I am so, so blessed and so thankful that those gentlemen came with me… we are working together as a team so we can better serve the citizens and also for morale, too. We’ve seen a great increase in morale from employees and everybody’s just looking forward to coming to work,” said Cardenas.
Although law enforcement has its undeniable challenges, Cardenas recalled a more “beautiful” time when he was a deputy and he and his partner responded to a call with a victim without a pulse and they were able to get his heart going again by CPR.
“That’s a feeling you’ll never forget—to bring someone back [to life],” he said.
According to Cardenas, the HCSO is currently understaffed in patrol, detention and dispatch, so the department is trying hard to fill those positions, as well as implementing new opportunities for the community to get to know the department.
One of these opportunities will include a chance to meet and talk with the Sheriff on the last Thursday of every month in different locations around Humboldt County, with the next event taking place in Orovada.
“It’s good to go out and show the community what exactly we’re doing. We’re doing a lot more than just sitting behind the wheel. We’re doing a lot more than just sitting in the office,” said Cardenas.
Cardenas also said that the department will continue to use Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) in schools, utilize facebook to post updates about jobs and department activity to promote transparency, and will be offering special education to senior citizens at the Pleasant Senior Center in regards to scams and frauds that older people are more susceptible to.
“I’m looking forward to serving the citizens of our county and I couldn’t be more thankful. I have to say thank you very much to all that believe in me and trust me,” said Cardenas.