I am the constitutionally and legitimately elected sheriff, and I absolutely refuse to surrender my responsibility to the federal government.

We do have freedom of speech, but if you say the wrong word, it looks like it makes headlines. So everybody has to be very careful.

When you see a white guy at three in the morning on your beat in an alley, you kind of - "What's this guy doing here?"

Now everybody is mafia. You got the Russian mafia, the Mexican mafia. Everybody is mafia these days.

You go to London, you see a TV set in every cell and the sign up that all the officers must treat prisoners with dignity. What about your dedicated soldiers that have helped fight in Afghanistan and Iraq? They're living in tents and our soldiers are living in tents. So it's OK for soldiers to live in tents, in hot tents, but it's wrong for inmates?

I'd rather report to four million people as the elected Sheriff than some governor or president, so I like reporting to the people.

It takes a lot of work to do this every day, every day, but I feel, as a sheriff, I should get to know my people. I serve them. They don't serve me. I serve them. They're my bosses, and the more people I can see and talk to, I love it.