Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Looking to Fill in Positions

The Humboldt Grand Jury released a handful of reports about under-staffing issues throughout the county.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is one of them.

“So we are short-staffed and we’re continuously recruiting Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is experiencing something that a lot of businesses on the North Coast are experiencing, and that is a lack of a workforce here in the county,” Sheriff William Honsal said. “You know, we need deputy sheriffs, we need correctional deputies, we need our emergency communication dispatchers […] All those are key elements to offering the services we need to offer here in the county. and we don’t have enough people applying for those positions right now.”

Sheriff Honsal explained that when there is not enough personnel to fill positions like a 911 dispatcher, then services will most likely be delayed.

“If our staffing drops below a certain level, we aren’t able to fill those positions and maybe a nighttime patrol deputy in Garberville doesn’t happen because we don’t have the staffing or it takes longer to answer a 911 call,” Sheriff Honsal said. 

The sheriff’s office is actively recruiting across the state for eligible candidates.

“We’ve done that over the last several years in the central valley and to try and, you know, bring people up to our north coast,” Sheriff Honsal said. “We are also making sure that we have recruiting fairs. and if there is an opportunity for our recruitment team to go out and actively recruit within our communities, we’re doing that.”

They also offer a sort of “test drive” for the jobs.

“If there’s anyone that is remotely interested to please call us, please come down, please talk to us about it,” Sheriff Honsal. “We can set up a ride along. we can get a tour of the jail. you can sit along in our communication center, all that stuff, to kind of get an idea of what we do on a daily basis and see what would be the best fit.”

The sheriff’s office is also offering hiring bonuses for certain positions. We put a link to the job openings on our website. Go to RedwoodNews.t-v and click on “links.”