PUBLIC COMMENT: There’s no rise in crime in L.A. County

Ambrose Brooks called in to the Public Safety Commission’s Monday night meeting to deliver these comments:

My name is Ambrose Brooks. My pronouns are they/them/ theirs. I am a resident of Hollywood and I am a coalition coordinator for the Justice L.A. Coalition here, and I’m really disturbed to hear comments in the Public Safety Commission meeting today about the need to increase funding for the police and for the sheriff’s department.

I want to remind the Commission that the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has a $3.4 billion budget every year, so they are not lacking in funds and a lack of sheriff’s deputies in our county is not the cause of a hypothetical rise in crime.

In fact, actually, there’s data to show that there is not a rise in crime here in L.A. County.

So in 2,017 the board of supervisors asked for semi-annual reports on the sheriff’s department’s financial status.

When overtime costs were over 80% of the authorized overtime budget of $130 million.

So the sheriff’s department exceeded the $130 million overtime budget by $150 million that.

And so the sheriff’s department patrol division as well, includes the personnel working for contract cities to dispose.

Hollywood had over $71 million overtime in fiscal year, 21.

And so, with all of those numbers in mind, I also want to talk about the lack of an investment in mental health care and permanent support of housing.

And so when we heard from a lot of callers today is that houseless individuals, individuals experiencing mental health crises are a threat to public safety.

So it doesn’t make sense honestly to then invest in a sheriff’s department that actually has nothing to do with supporting mental health care, or supporting substance use or supporting houses communities.

It actually makes sense to reinvest the dollars out of the sheriff’s department and into permanent care for individuals experiencing houselessness and mental health care.

Also I encourage counties and cities such as West Hollywood to look into salary disparities.

In the sheriff’s department an entry level deputy takes home $100,000 a year and an entry level mental health care worker makes about 4 $45,000 a year.

It makes a lot of sense why people would have potentially gravitated towards working for the sheriff’s department and not mental health services.

In fact, this evening the Board of Supervisors has issued multiple motions addressing the need for more mental health care workers.

In Los Angeles, however, the Board did not address the salary disparities, but contracts.

Cities can take that up on their own. And so I want to bring everyone’s attention to the fact that yes, people may feel that they are in danger. People may have experienced acts of violence but the sheriff’s apartment is not the people to solve that — it’s investing in the root causes that drive houselessness, that drive mental health issues and drive substance use.