Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-05)
Washington, DC. (InEDC) — If you want to understand successful law enforcement, the first place to look is the career of El Dorado County Sheriff John D’Agostini. It’s not hard: it was under his leadership – indeed, because of his leadership – that the day-to-day operations of his department became the subject of the popular TV series, “The Sheriffs of El Dorado County” – that ran from 2014 to 2019.
It is the very definition of successful policing – pioneered by Sir Robert Peale and perfected and practiced by Sheriff D’Agostini. Ideal police departments are run as extensions of the communities they serve – they work in partnership with local citizens – and this was the heart of Sheriff D’Agonstini’s success.
I’ve seen that in action over and over. During the devastating King Fire, I watched him at his post even when his own ranch was imminently threatened. During the Caldor Fire, he opened that same ranch to the stream of evacuees who had fled the devastation with only the clothes on their backs. I can’t tell you the number of times I watched him during these terrifying disasters – always calm, always focused, always reassuring, and omnipresent.
He is loved by his community and his department because he loves them – and that caring is what binds the community to the Sheriff’s department and exemplified and indeed, defined, his successful record of modern policing.
He was first elected in 2010 by a margin of less than 1,300 votes. But as he proved himself – he became a beloved institution in the community and won re-election overwhelmingly in 2014 and 2018 – and would have won by acclamation in 2022, but for the fact that he chose to retire back into the community he has so faithfully served and protected.
They were not all easy years. He lost a deputy to an illegal alien in an illegal marijuana grow in 2019 and became a national figure warning of the dangers that our porous border and sanctuary policies present to communities across America and to those who risk their lives to protect us.
When state bureaucrats ordered businesses to shut down during the Covid hysteria, Sheriff D’Agostini stood up for the constitutional rights of his constituents and refused to destroy their livelihoods. His courageous stand has since been affirmed by the mounting evidence that the lockdowns cost lives, destroyed livelihoods and did nothing to slow the spread of the disease.
Sheriff D’Agostini worked his way up through the ranks, first graduating from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Academy in 1993. Throughout his career, Sheriff D’Agostini served in numerous positions including Patrol Deputy, Detective, SWAT Team Member, Narcotics Investigator, Rangemaster and Firearms Instructor, and investigator for the Amador County District Attorney’s Office.
Sheriff D’Agostini is well known for his many accomplishments and contributions to the community including his leadership in constructing a new Public Safety Headquarters located in Placerville. This building now provides local law enforcement with emergency operation services, a 9-1-1 dispatch center, a morgue, an evidence building, a special operations and training building, as well as an indoor shooting range and armory.
M. Speaker, without law enforcement there is no law, and without law there is no civilization, which is why it is impossible to overstate the necessity of our local police departments and the law and order they uphold within our communities. I am proud today to congratulate John on his numerous accomplishments and his exemplary leadership, and on behalf of grateful citizens across El Dorado County, to thank him for his extraordinary service.
El Dorado County has been extremely fortunate to have had his leadership for the past 12 years. And although he isn’t going anywhere – he’s retiring right back into the community that raised him, and although his successor is well prepared under his tutelage to carry on his successful policies – it won’t stop us from missing him in the role he defined and the responsibilities he discharged so well.
