Allegheny County Sheriff Pete DeFazio has seen three deputies forced out of his office by federal indictments. It's time for him to go, too.

Mr. DeFazio, who has suggested he may retire on Oct. 1 when he reaches 36 years in the department, should make that a solemn pledge. It must be one more reliable than the oath he swore to direct a righteous service to the public when he ascended to the sheriff's job nine years ago.

The image of the sheriff's office has hardly been honorable in recent years as the U.S. attorney investigated public corruption there and charged three deputies, including Mr. DeFazio's chief assistant. The deputies' dirty deeds included macing, witness tampering and money laundering.

There's the former sheriff's lieutenant commander, Richard A. Stewart Jr., a 28-year veteran of the office, who admitted that he denied a vacation request because the deputy had neglected to donate to Mr. DeFazio's re-election campaign.

There's the former sheriff's captain, Frank Schiralli, convicted of perjury for lying to a grand jury about the lists he kept of deputies who bought tickets to fund-raisers for Mr. DeFazio's election campaigns.

Finally, there's the former chief deputy, Dennis Skosnik, who pleaded guilty to bribery, mail and wire fraud, money laundering and tampering with a witness by providing instruction on lying to a grand jury.

And it's not over. The federal investigation into the sheriff's office continues.

If all of this was happening under Mr. DeFazio's nose and he was blissfully unaware, then he's a lame law enforcement officer and should relinquish the post for that reason alone.

It is, however, a little hard to swallow a contention that deputies were raising money for Mr. DeFazio, and he didn't know how they were doing it. If he had even a hint of problems, he should have made it clear to everyone in his office that he wouldn't permit it. He, after all, is the boss.

There are also issues of competency. An audit by the county controller released in June, for instance, showed the sheriff's antiquated filing system caused long delays in paying revenues from $10 million in sheriff's sales each month.

The sheriff Mr. DeFazio replaced, Eugene L. Coon, was convicted while in office in 1995 of disorderly conduct and harassment for firing a rifle from his back porch to protest noise from a neighbor's target shooting range. More than a decade later, Allegheny County still deserves a smart, respectable sheriff.