San Diego County’s Largest Law Enforcement Agency Takes a New Name

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San Diego County sheriff's vehicle | U-T file photo

What’s in a name? It may depend on who’s asking. But Sheriff Kelly Martinez has imposed a fundamental change in how the organization she was elected to serve is formally known.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, which dates back to the time when Milliard Fillmore was president of the United States and the Civil War was years in the future, is no more.

Since early last month, the region’s largest law enforcement agency has quietly begun referring to itself as the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s officials made no public announcement of the shift in proper nouns.

The change coincides with the beginning of the San Diego County fiscal year.

Agency officials did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation for the name change.

In news releases issued by the organization in late June, the law enforcement agency was referred to as the San Diego Sheriff’s Department or the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

Subsequently, the agency is cited as the San Diego Sheriff’s Office or the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.

The agency was established in 1850, the year California formally became the 31st state in the union and the year San Diego County was named one of the original 27 counties officially chartered by the state.

It now patrols more than 4,000 square miles and employs some 2,500 sworn deputies.

Not every reference to the long-standing moniker has been scrubbed from the office’s website.

“From horses to motor cars, airplanes, helicopters, computers, cellphones and body-worn cameras, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has come a long way since 1850,” it states.