S.M.A.R.T. deputies are trained in a wide range of skills that run the gamut from Special Weapons and Tactics to threat assessment and interviewing skills. Some are capable of taking out a school shooter at long range however, their main mission is to prevent a catastrophic school incident by identifying early warning signs and facilitating early intervention.   SMART Deputies evaluate and assesses each incident individually. Their goal is to effectively resolve each incident through the least intrusive means available while maintaining the safety and security to the school.   

“We’re very concerned about children who have dark, dark secrets,” said the S.M.A.R.T. unit commander, Lieutenant Brad Virgoe.

The Department's School Mobile Assessment and Resource Team is profiled in the latest edition of California Sheriff.

S.M.A.R.T. Deputy Merl Mireles shows items he has confiscated at local schools

To read the California Sheriff story click: Scan001a.pdf (253.24 kb)

At about 0815 hours Sunday morning, Lieutenant Timothy Finneran was just exiting the Chino Valley Freeway when he was flagged down by a man and two children.

They pointed to a car that had gone off the exit ramp and rolled over and came to rest in a ravine at the bottom of a 15-foot slope.

“I observed a brown vehicle laying on its passenger side with a woman partially pinned underneath and inside the vehicle passenger side,” said Lieutenant Finneran, who was off duty at the time. Lieutenant Finneran, who heads the Homeland Security Grants Unit, said it was hard to describe just how the woman was positioned, he could see her face through the windshield and her legs were outside the passenger compartment and under the car.

“We had to get her out of there,” he said. Moving the car could be dangerous if there were other occupants. He checked the vehicle carefully. Two other cars had pulled over at the same time as he did, one with a Little League coach and a youth team football coach. One of the coaches was with his wife, a Registered Nurse.

The nurse stayed at the top of the ramp to call 911 for help.

Lieutenant Finneran and two of the men lifted the overturned car enough so that the fourth man could pull the victim out from under it. There was a fear that the car could fall back, overturning and possibly crushing the victim. To prevent it falling back onto the victim, it was pushed upright, all the way onto its wheels. More...