DEPUTY SHERIFF BOOKS - Stephen M. Passamaneck

About the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is the largest sheriff's department in the world. In addition to specialized services, such as the Sheriff's Youth Foundation, International Liaison and Employee Support Services, the Department is divided into ten divisions, each headed by a Division Chief.

There are three patrol divisions (Field Operations Regions I, II and III), Custody Operations Division, Correctional Services Division, Detective Division, Court Services Division, Technical Services Division, Office of Homeland Security, Administrative Services Division, and Leadership and Training Division.

The Sheriff's Department of Los Angeles County was formed in April, 1850. Elections for the office of Sheriff were held annually until 1882, when the term was increased to two years; in 1894 the term was increased to four years. The first Sheriff of Los Angeles County was George T. Burrill and his staff consisted of two Deputies.

Twenty-four men have served Los Angeles County as Sheriff since 1850: nineteen were elected and six were appointed by the Board of Supervisors to serve the unexpired term of their predecessors. Two were killed in the line of duty. Of those appointed, four were re-elected to the office. The youngest man ever elected to the office of Sheriff was William B. Rowland, who was sworn in when he was 25 years old (in 1871), and was re-elected three times. The record for the longest consecutive service goes to Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz, who completed 51 years in the department, from deputy in 1907, to being appointed Sheriff in 1932 and then retiring in 1958. Our previous Los Angeles County Sheriff, Sherman Block, entered the department as a Deputy Sheriff in 1956 and continued up through the ranks until he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to succeed Sheriff Pitchess in 1982. In June of 1982, Sheriff Block was elected to a full four year term as Sheriff of Los Angeles County.

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Professor Stephen M. Passamaneck, Rabbi, Ph.D. is Professor of Rabbinics at HUC-JIR/Los Angeles, where he has taught Talmud and medieval Jewish legal material. Early in his career he wrote on maritime and insurance law in Jewish sources. Since 1976, when he first affiliated with law enforcement agencies as a chaplain, he has written almost exclusively on law enforcement and administration of justice in Jewish sources. He was trained and sworn as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff and served as a line Reserve for eleven years. He continues to serve as a volunteer law enforcement chaplain with a federal law enforcement agency. He was elected President of the Jewish Law Association and has also been an officer of the International Conference of Police Chaplains.

In addition to the eight books he has authored or co-authored, Stephen M. Passamaneck is the author of Police Ethics and the Jewish Tradition. According to the book description of Police Ethics and the Jewish Tradition, “Jewish tradition has a great deal to say about morals and ethics in various modern fields of public concern, including police ethics. In Police Ethics and the Jewish Tradition, author Stephen Passamaneck explores three areas of interest: loyalty, bribery and gratuities, and deception. Loyalty will always be a part of police culture and administrators are faced with the task of minimizing its abuses. Jewish tradition encourages the support of the whistleblower who exposes wrongdoing for the sake of the public good. This can sometimes lead to a clash between tradition and the "blue wall of silence."

In the area of bribery and gratuities, Jewish law prohibits bribery but modest gratuities may be accepted. Tradition allows a given class of persons to enjoy preferential treatment. In police culture, limits must be imposed on any gratuities. Any expression of respect and appreciation must have no relation to the manner in which a police officer performs his or her duties. In the area of deception, Jewish tradition is very clear that misleading the innocent is morally wrong. Police ethics accepts deception in an interrogation to obtain information, to protect a life, or to recover stolen property. Deceptive tactics, however, have no place in a court of law. Jewish legal tradition does not differ from modern western law in this respect. This book takes a first look at the idea that Jewish tradition may offer benefit to the evolving world of police ethics.”