Prominent California sheriff offers grim warning after county releases budget

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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is warning that more than 600 deputies may need to be fired as a bitter budget battle with county officials escalates.

Bianco blasted the Riverside County Board of Supervisors after they rejected his request for an additional $150 million in funding for the Sheriff’s Department.

The sheriff warned the funding shortfall could force massive cuts to the department, potentially putting hundreds of deputies out of work.

“They know that I am extremely short-staffed. They know for a fact that I am shorted $125 million, and that equates to 622 deputy sheriff positions. And it’s just simple math,” Bianco told ABC 7.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors increased the Sheriff’s Department budget by roughly $25 million, but Bianco says the boost falls far short of what he needs.

The sheriff accused county officials of “being extremely dishonest” and said they “know exactly what the consequences of this budget was.”

Bianco plans to eliminate roughly 200 positions through attrition, retirements and transfers as he grapples with the funding gap.

But he also says he intends to keep paying the remaining deputies — even if that means pushing the department over its approved budget.

Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen defended the board’s decision, saying “the cumulative cost of those requests significantly exceeded the discretionary revenue available to support them.”

The county had to “balance competing priorities within finite resources while preserving the County’s long term financial health,” Van Wagenen said.

Bianco had already sounded the alarm in June, warning the county board that failing to meet his budget request would have major consequences for unincorporated communities.

The Sheriff’s Department was allocated $1.27 billion in the county’s fiscal 2026 budget, up from $1.16 billion the previous year.