Some Positive Press for Sheriff Hutchens

Today’s edition of the Los Angeles Times has a editorial, no doubt inspired by Dana Parsons story on OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.  And Parsons’ story comes on the heels of an in-depth profile of the Sheriff in OC Weekly several weeks back.

Look, Law enforcement is supposed to be non-partisan. And even though this sheriff identifies herself as a Republican, I like many of the changes she is implementing at OCSD.  She has a huge mess to clean up caused by a certain disgraced convicted felon;so not only is there the external pressures from the political “insiders” who had access to Carona, but there’s the sea change that needs to occur by cleaning up the department internally.  It’s a huge and nearly impossible job yet Sheriff Hutchens seems to approach the job with a level of integrity lacking from the last elected sheriff (who’s portrait, I’m sure, is still absent from the wall of sheriff’s in the Santa Ana office).

From the story:

“There may be no way for Hutchens to win the favor of the Republican Party inner circle that helped put Carona in office, and it may not be desirable in any case. Not only is she an outsider, she’s the outsider who took away some of their gun permits. But her job — at least, if her goal is to keep it in the 2010 election — calls for being disarming in other ways as well.”

The Parsons story included excerpts from the Red County blog posts written by Adam Probolsky alleging the Sheriff was “boring” (boring being a topic Probolsky is an expert on — having read his Irvine World News articles zzzzzzz) and there was no need to contribute to her campaign.

Still, with stories like the one in the Weekly and the coverage in the Times, its nice to see the Sheriff get some credit for the work she’s already been able to accomplish.