California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a major settlement Tuesday aimed at reforming practices at the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.

The agreement comes after an investigation by the California Department of Justice into Kern County’s law enforcement practices, sparked by a 2015 article from The Guardian news site naming Kern County as the deadliest region in the nation in police killings.

The state said the county and KCSO will take a set of corrective actions, to be overseen by an independent monitor, aimed at promoting public safety, increasing transparency and accountability and enhancing KCSO’s relationship with the community.

The DOJ’s investigation, which began in 2016, addressed allegations of unlawful policing practices in Kern County regarding use of unreasonable force, unreasonable stops, searches and seizures and a failure to exercise appropriate management and supervision of deputies both on patrol and in the county’s jails.

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