The Office of the Sheriff for Ventura County began in February 1873, with the election of Sheriff Frank Peterson. What began as a duty to collect taxes and catch horse thieves has evolved significantly as the county has changed and grown. Seventeen other Sheriffs have held the Office of the Sheriff since 1873. The administration of justice (and more criminals going to trial rather than the dispensing of "frontier justice") became more sophisticated during the late 19th century. Sheriff
Edmund Guy McMartin, who was elected Sheriff five times, was the first and only Sheriff killed in the line of duty while apprehending a murder suspect in 1921. Public hangings and bootlegging arrests gave way to police practices and procedures commonly recognized today. The modern era of Ventura County law enforcement began in 1959 with Sheriff William Hill. The 1970s saw the genesis of community involvement programs like Community Orientated Policing and Problem Solving (COPPS), DARE and Neighborhood Watch. Today, the cornerstone of county policing is the partnership between the Sheriff's Office and county residents.
1920s Sheriff
Edmund Guy McMartin died on August 20, 1921, when he and Oxnard Township Constable W.E. Kelley were killed in the line of duty while attempting to arrest a murder suspect.
1950s Deputy Donald Gregory was killed instantly on September 9, 1951, when the patrol car his partner was driving hit a telephone pole. An unidentified wrong way driver caused the collision on Highway 118 near Simi Valley.
1960s Reserve (Auxiliary) Deputy Bryce Patten was shot and killed on August 19, 1960, while working a roadblock on Casitas Pass Road. The suspects in a $150 liquor store robbery shot Patten to avoid being caught. The three suspects were caught in Bakersfield six days later and prosecuted. Deputy Earl Mendenhall died on June 15, 1961, from injuries received in a traffic collision when the mentally ill prisoner Mendenhall was transporting grabbed the steering wheel and directed the car into oncoming traffic. Deputy Chester "Chico" Larson drowned on January 20, 1969, while attempting to rescue a group of hikers at Sespe Creek. Chico was stranded in a stalled rescue tractor in the middle of the river and was washed off the top of the tractor with 10 other victims. There was one survivor.
1970s Detective Donald E. Haynie was shot and killed June 5, 1970, while attempting to make a narcotics arrest in Fillmore. Haynie and three other plainclothes sheriff's narcotics agents entered the house of a suspected drug dealer. The suspect's 78-year-old father shot Haynie once in the chest. The shooting was determined to be a misunderstanding, and the father was released. Donald served as a military policeman in the Army. In October 1973, Lieutenant Harvey A. "Hank" Varat, a 14-year law enforcement veteran, was on a search and rescue training exercise in the Santa Susanna Mountains when he was bit by a tick and infected with
Rocky Mountain spotted fever. He died four days later on October 20, 1973, from the fever. Varat helped develop the SWAT team, Deep-Sea Diving Team, and the search and rescue team. Sergeant Tom Collins died on October 25, 1975, when the helicopter he was flying crashed into the Santa Clara riverbed. Tom started the helicopter unit for the Ventura County Sheriff's Office in 1971.
1990s Deputy Peter Aguirre was shot and killed on July 17, 1996, while responding to a domestic call in the City of Ojai. The suspect was also shot, but survived and was prosecuted. Senior Deputy Lisa Whitney was killed on August 12, 1998, in a traffic accident when a driver failed to stop at an inoperative traffic light in Ventura.
2000s Deputy Robert D. Bornet, a 10-year veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, was killed on November 6, 2006, in a traffic accident while attempting to stop a motorist for a vehicle code violation. Bornet was in uniform and driving in his personal vehicle when the accident occurred.
2010s in the early 2010s Deputy Eugene Kostiuchenko, an 11-year veteran, was killed on October 28, 2014, while concluding a traffic stop on the 101 freeway at the Lewis Road off-ramp, in the Californian city of Camarillo. At approximately 1:15 am, Deputy Kostiuchenko was returning to his marked patrol vehicle when a second vehicle, driven by 25-year-old Kevin Hogrefe, struck the deputy, causing fatal injuries. Kevin Hogrefe, an alleged drunk driver, left the scene of the accident and was captured by additional deputies approximately 2 miles away at the Las Posas Road off ramp, after Hogrefe collided with a second vehicle, disabling his own. Sergeant Ron Helus, a 29-year veteran of the VC Sheriff's Office, died on November 7, 2018, after he was shot while being the first law enforcement officer to engage an active shooter at the
Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks on the night of November 7, 2018, at approximately 11:25 pm. 11 other people were killed by the shooter. Search and Rescue Team Member Jeffrey Dye died on February 2, 2019, when he was struck by a vehicle on the center median of the I-5 Freeway near Gorman while trying to rescue victims from a previous unrelated car accident. ==Organization==