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Rural California community left on its own as police staffing shortage brings end to daytime patrols

Cabins in Los Molinos, a small community in Tehama County, California.

A rural community in northern California is reporting it cannot rely on local police should a crisis hit due to staffing shortages that run so deep in the area that the sheriff’s office has canceled daytime patrols. 

“Unless you’re bleeding or dying, you’re probably not going to get a sheriff or anyone to respond,” Tehama County resident Cheyenne Thornton told the Guardian

Tehama County has a population of nearly 66,000 people and sits about halfway between Sacramento and the Oregon border. Within the county sits the community of Rancho Tehama Reserve, where residents say that calling 911 leads to a dead end or long wait times. 

“People out here are ready to take it into their own hands. They’re tired of not getting any help. It’s kind of a ticking timebomb out here,” Thornton, an office manager with the local homeowners’ association, told the Guardian. 

NATIONAL NURSING SHORTAGE HITTING RURAL AMERICA HARDEST

Cabins in Los Molinos, a small community in Tehama County, California. (Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

“You feel like you don’t matter out here – you’re on your own.”

The Tehama County Sheriff’s Office is located about 25 miles from the town and has been battling a steep staffing crisis for years, which has been made worse in recent years – when other police departments across the country reported ongoing staffing problems related to 2020’s defund the police movement.

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In November, the sheriff’s office canceled daytime patrols altogether, citing a “catastrophic staffing shortage” due to a “drastic rise in attrition, coupled with the inability to present enticing recruitment efforts.”

Tehama Sheriff's Office in California.

Tehama Sheriff’s Office in California. (Google Maps )

“We’ve never been in a position where we’ve [had] to suspend dayshift patrol,” Sheriff David Kain told the outlet. “I don’t know that people really recognize how agonizing this is.”

Data from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that the number of patrol officers fell by more than 20% between 2008 and 2021. Some locals, however, say lack of police is nothing new.  

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“I moved to this county in 1978, and the first question I asked was, ‘What kind of service do you have in the rural areas?’” County Supervisor Bill Moule told CalMatters in December. “The sheriff was…

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