Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends, and colleagues of the 2 recent officers killed in the line of duty in California - Officer Javier Bejar, Reedley PD and Deputy Ken Collier San Diego County Sheriff's Department. A service is planned for Officer Bejar on Monday, March 8, 10am Fresno Exhibit Hall & a service for Deputy Collier is planned for Saturday, March 6, 2010 – 10:00 am at the Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon. 

Well 2009 has come to an end and none too soon for most of us. It has been a year to forget and hopefully never to repeat. But 2010 is here and we are all hoping for a better financial return. The VCDSA is in a contract until April 2011. We negotiated out to 2011 to help the County get through the then anticipated hard times and not have to be back at the table too soon.  

VCDSA is now accepting student scholarship applications for the 2010 academic year. The scholarship is open to dependent children of active members of VCDSA in good standing, or of retired members of VCDSA in good standing with ten (10) consecutive years of active membership immediately prior to retirement, or of medically retired members of VCDSA in good standing with five (5) consecutive years of active membership immediately prior to retirement, or of survivors of active or retired members in good standing as described above. Click here for the scholarship application. Applications must be received no later than 5:00PM Wednesday, March 31, 2010.

For the second time in four years, the VCDSA Trap Team won the annual Boy Scouts' “Shootout for Scouting” held on October 2nd at the Oak Tree Gun Club located in Newhall, California. This annual fundraising event was hosted by the Boy Scouts of America and Ventura County Council; VCDSA assisted with sponsoring the five-member Trap team. 

There was a great turnout for the 2009 VCDSA/Department Shoot held on Saturday, September 19 at the Sheriff’s Range, with 121 shooters participating and many family members, kids and guests on hand to watch the fun.  The delicious food was catered by Tommy’s Famous Burgers and major donations were provided by Force Tactical, ProForce Firearms, SureFire, Cold Steel and CopQuest.com. 

For the first time since 1996, Chevrolet will be offering a high-performance, rear-wheel-drive, V-8 powered sedan for the 2011 model year. The catch: You have to wear a badge to drive one.

The 2009 Western States Police & Fire Games were held June 13th-19th in Santa Clarita, CA. Over 5,000 personnel from 417 public service agencies participated in this year's games. The "Ventura County Combo" soccer team, which was comprised of peace officers from Ventura County Sheriff's Department, Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department, Ventura County District Attorney's Office, and Simi Valley Police Department, won the bronze medal in the Third Place Open Division after winning 4 out of 6 games. Next year's games will be held in Reno, Nevada, where the Ventura County Combo team hopes to take the gold.

The VCDSA Political Action Committee has endorsed Ventura County Sheriff's Department Commander Geoff Dean for Sheriff in the 2010 election. The endorsement follows a candidate's forum where Commander Dean and Chief Deputy Dennis Carpenter, the likely candidates for the Sheriff's election, met with VCDSA bargaining unit members and the Board of Directors to discuss their candidacy. The endorsement also followed a department wide survey of VCDSA bargaining unit members which revealed Commander Dean as the favored internal candidate. Commander Dean is a 31-year veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. The endorsement of Commander Dean by VCDSA signifies the early stages for the first contested election for the position of Sheriff in more than 32 years and represents the support of the rank-and-file for the candidate.

Persons wishing to make donations for the trust funds of the Oakland PD officers killed in the line of duty may do so by individual checks made out to families and mailed to: c/o OPOA, Attn: Rennee Hassna, 555 5th Street, Oakland Ca, 94607. Make checks out to the following: "Dunakin Children's Family Trust" and/or "Romans Children's Family Trust" and/or "Sakai Family Trust."Wire transfers directly to Merrill Lynch Accounts: "Dunakin Children's Family Trust" a/c #204-04065 and/or "Romans Children's Family Trust" a/c #204-04066 and/or "Sakai Family Trust" a/c #204-04064.