Local & Community

Sheriff Bianco Commits to Change as He’s Sworn In

After more than a decade, there’s a new sheriff in Riverside County: Chad Bianco. He was sworn in as the fourteenth sheriff of the county on Tuesday on the steps of the Historic County Courthouse in Riverside. The well attended and cheerful ceremony was a family affair. His brother Judge Brett Bianco administered the oath, while his wife Denise Bianco held the Bible he placed his hand on, his brother, Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Bianco pinned the sheriff’s badge on his shirt, his son Tyler and daughter Tori, pinned his starts on his lapel and Bianco through tears, proudly spoke about a phone call he received from his son in the military who couldn’t be there because he’s serving in the Middle East.

Bianco has looked forward to this day for a long time.

“So many emotions all wrapped up into one that I’m still trying to figure it out but I’m very happy, I’m very optimistic about where we’re going and it’s exciting,” he said.
He’s already delivering on a campaign promise to bring change to the department.
“One of our downfalls is in our department has always been that’s the way we’ve always done it,” he says.
Gone are the days of a top down approach and with it the position of under sheriff. Instead he will have what he calls a round table made up of three assistant sheriffs, two brought in from outside agencies.
“This isn’t a one person show, this isn’t about me, this is about the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and we will all come up with solutions and directions and ways to make us better and ways we can come up with to better serve our public,” says Bianco.
He says since the election he’s been working on building relationships that were strained under the old leadership, “I wasn’t sitting around for two months, I’ve been meeting with a lot of people, the chiefs, the government officials, our city officials and things are going very well and it really is a new beginning for us.”
He says he’s not worried about detractors because the voters wanted change and it’s time to move on from the election and become a part of the solution, “Our actions and what we’re doing in this department, we are going forward from here.”
Bianco does say the department will take a look at the decade old investigation of one of their own, Kevin Duffy.
Duffy took his life after he was accused of child molestation. Whistleblowers said the administration hid allegations from the community and failed the victims.
“That will never happen again, we are here to protect victims, that is our job our job is to fight crime, protect victims, provide us a safe place and what more are we supposed to do than protect our children, we will look at every aspect of that investigation and we will make sure that if there’s something we can do we will do it.”
He also addressed the more than year long investigation into the disappearances of Jonathan Darling and Audrey Moran.
“I want the same for everyone that I would want for myself, all I can say is we are going to be doing everything we can to not have these incidents to bring closure to these incidents to solve these types of cases.”
He says the outpouring of support means a lot for this new chapter in the department, “I can just promise you, you know I will wake up everyday trying to make this place better than it was the day before … it’s an exciting time for our department, it’s long overdue and we have a new beginning today.”

By: NBC Palm Springs

January 9, 2019

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Sheriff Bianco Commits to Change as He’s Sworn In