In Merced County, which stretches from the Sierra Nevada foothills west across vast acres of orchards and farmland, Sheriff Vern Warnke increasingly finds himself the only law enforcement officer available to answer a call for help.
Most recently, the department received a call from a woman regarding a domestic dispute, saying her husband had a gun. With no deputies in close range, Warnke reported to the scene, wearing his signature cowboy hat and his badge hung around his neck. He found a man pacing with a loaded gun tucked into his waistband and managed to deescalate the situation.
“We had nobody to send, and I, as the sheriff, I'm still a cop, I still love what I do,” said Warnke. “But we're at that point when the sheriff and administration are having to take calls.”
Warnke has worked for the Merced sheriff's office for 45 years and has been sheriff for the last decade. So it's with heavy heart, he said, that he's watched deputy vacancies climb to the point where he believes residents are at risk. In February, Warnke posted a video that amounted to a plea for help, warning residents that the staffing shortage was now so severe calls for service could go unheeded.
“I'm fighting for the sheriff's office’s life right now,” Warnke says in the video. “That means I'm fighting for your public safety. So folks, it's bad."