Ray Dietrich
Twenty years of Southern California law enforcement.
New book — UNITS ARE SURROUNDED: Gunfights, Politics, and the Soboba Reservation. The opening chapter is free: formerlawmanlive.com/surrounded
I started in 1996 as a Community Service Officer out of Lakewood Station for the City of Paramount.
Sworn in with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2001. In LA you start in the jail — Men’s Central. Then I trained at Century Station and went to patrol. Graveyard, one-man car, South Central, working the Blue Line.
I went to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 2005. Started at Southwest Station, then Hemet.
What I worked
- Patrol
- Field Training Officer — Southwest and Hemet
- Street Enforcement Team, Hemet — street-level crime and narcotics
- Regional gang task force
- Station-level detective, Investigations Bureau at Southwest
- Assigned to admin, where I handled officer-involved shootings
- Sergeant — Southwest Station and county jail facilities
- Watch Commander on shift
- Emergency Response Teams in custody
I’ve been in a gunfight.
That’s the qualification. I’m not a commentator who read a press release.
What this site is
Officer-involved shootings, use of force, pursuits, and the law enforcement news the mainstream press gets wrong or ignores.
I break down the video. What the officer saw, what he had, how long he had — and what I’d have done with it. Sometimes that’s a defense. Sometimes it isn’t.
Where the work lives
Every breakdown lands on Rumble first and stays there uncut. Edited bodycam goes up through the week, with one deeper breakdown of the week. Written analysis goes out on Substack and here.
