Sergeant Carlos Medina Retires
Last updated 3/23/2018 at 2:34pm
Sergeant Carlos Medina, Borrego Springs resident and former Borrego deputy will retire March 29, after a 31-year career with the San Diego Sheriff’s Department.
Sgt. Medina has been assigned to the Julian Substation since 2013, where he supervises the mountain community deputies. Prior to his promotion to Sergeant, Medina spent nine years as a beat deputy in Borrego Springs.
One of the highlights of his career was his coordination of a search warrant and bringing a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area team to Borrego Springs to arrest a local man who was suspected of selling methamphetamine.
The arrest made front-page news in the Borrego Sun after the suspect was arrested with 60 grams of methamphetamine in his vehicle and stolen weapons that resulted in a felony conviction and prison time.
Numerous other arrests and investigations followed during Medina’s near decade of work in Borrego Springs.
Sgt. Medina has a reputation as a community problem solver who takes the extra steps needed to return lost or stolen property, coordinate with other agencies, and share information with the public. Although now offline, he originated the Backcountry Cops Facebook page that eventually had more than 800 followers.
In another memorable investigation, then-Deputy Medina tracked down a Borrego Springs bookkeeper and tax preparer who had sold or given fraudulent payroll checks from the Borrego Sun to an accomplice in San Diego.
Through an investigation, Sgt. Medina tracked the bookkeeper to San Diego, arrested him and two other accomplices, and eventually coordinated the return of hundreds of files of sensitive financial and tax information to local residents.
Prior to moving to the Rural Division and Borrego Springs in 2004, Sgt. Medina worked patrol in Poway and Encinitas.
Following his promotion, he worked in Fallbrook, Lemon Grove, and Rancho San Diego before landing back in rural at his Julian post. Sgt. Medina considers his years on the rural beat to be the most rewarding of his more than three decades of law enforcement service.
“It was a fulfilling assignment to work in the back country and try to make a difference,” Sgt. Medina said.
As part of his experience, Sgt. Medina spent five years as the County’s Drug Recognition Expert and trained numerous officers at various agencies in DRE techniques. He is also a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps.
