Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood publicly admitted his office had policies it 'wasn't necessarily following' as a federal judge granted state prosecutors two more years of civil-rights oversight of the department under a 2020 consent decree

Following a 2016 California DOJ pattern-or-practice civil rights investigation into the Kern County Sheriff's Office (and separately the Bakersfield Police Department) over alleged excessive force and deaths in custody, the state and county entered a 2020 stipulated judgment requiring reforms to use of force, stops/searches, behavioral-health response and supervisory oversight. In March 2026 a judge granted the California DOJ's request to extend court supervision of KCSO by two more years after finding the office still only partially compliant on use of force, stops/searches/seizures, and supervisorial oversight; Sheriff Donny Youngblood said in a televised interview that the department had policies it "weren't necessarily following" before the judgment but disputed that ongoing delays are the county's fault.