Oregon’s law enforcement certification agency found that Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp violated the state agency’s moral fitness standards when he lied about his past with a California police agency, according to a draft report from the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training obtained by The Bulletin.

The draft report lists fourteen separate instances of dishonesty related to van der Kamp’s previous employment and his educational history; it also found van der Kamp harmed the “efficient operations of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office and the public’s trust by intentionally falsifying documents,” and that “van der Kamp’s dishonesty under oath discredits the law enforcement profession and the standing of DCSO in the community.”

The newly-elected sheriff will have the opportunity to deliver a verbal statement to the agency’s Police Policy Committee on May 22. After that, the committee will determine whether van der Kamp’s law enforcement credentials, which are required to hold the office of sheriff, will be revoked permanently, temporarily or not at all. 

The report comes after a tumultuous first 100 days in office for van der Kamp. Earlier this month, Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels placed van der Kamp on the so-called Brady list — a document listing officers banned from testifying in court due to a history of dishonesty — after the office found he had lied on the stand about his educational history on at least three occasions.

DPSST’s investigation was opened in response to a complaint that van der Kamp was terminated with cause from the La Mesa Police Department in La Mesa, California in 1997 and failed to disclose that on his application with the sheriff’s office. But the findings from the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office were also presented as evidence that van der Kamp violated the department’s moral fitness standards.

Voters elected van der Kamp despite public allegations he was dishonest while working with the La Mesa Police Department, but the Brady listing has shaken some of his supporters. Mayor Melanie Kebler has already called for his resignation, and The Bulletin has reports from inside the sheriff’s office that some officers feel van der Kamp is being treated too leniently.

“If it were any one of us, we would immediately be placed on administrative leave, pending termination. Every other name that’s on that (Brady) list … has been either resigned during an investigation or straight terminated,” said Sgt. Thomas Lilienthal. “This list is a career ender for any one of us. I would not be afforded the opportunity to decide my fate if my name ended up on this list. It is extremely uneasy and unsettling.”

It is unusual for the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to initiate an investigation into a law enforcement officer as the result of a complaint, and of the 101 people who have had their police credentials revoked in the past five years, only one was the result of a complaint. More commonly, the department revokes credentials as the result of investigations automatically triggered when someone is terminated from a law enforcement position.

This was the department’s original position in December 2023 when the complaint was first submitted. At the time, the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training forwarded the the complaint to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office on the grounds it was jurisdictional; it was only after the sheriff’s office internal investigation was completed in December that the state agency opened a professional standards review case against van der Kamp.

Van der Kamp has worked for the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office for more than 20 years, most recently as a sergeant with the interagency drug enforcement team. He defeated Capt. William Bailey in November in a hotly contested race to replace outgoing Sheriff Shane Nelson, who retired and had endorsed Bailey before he left the agency.

Van der Kamp has said he will not decide whether to resign until June.