Councilmember Erickson: How many deputies do we need to make WeHo feel safe?

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Councilmember John Erickson grilled Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Commander Ed Ramirez over how the agency fields emergency calls on Monday at City Council’s meeting.

Erickson wanted to know why deputies sometimes ask crime victims to perform a “citizen’s arrest” on the suspect — for example, a resident being assaulted by a homeless person.

“Why would you ask a individual private citizen to do a citizen’s arrest when they’ve been assaulted and not arrest (the suspect) yourselves especially when there are witnesses and everything?” he asked.

That’s just state law, according to Ramirez.

“If an assault is a misdemeanor like a misdemeanor battery and we are not witness to it, then the law requires the person who’s the victim of a misdemeanor battery to place the person who committed it under a private person’s arrest,” he said. “It’s essentially signing a sheet saying this person did this to me.”

“Now if the assaulting party hits them with a pipe and cracks their head open, that’s a felony, and so we can take action and arrest that individual without a private person’s arrest.”

The line between misdemeanor and felony can get blurry. Deputies make arrests when it’s domestic violence or when criminal threats are involved.

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Erickson felt that there was a larger “disconnect” that left residents feeling isolated in dealing with law enforcement issues. He cited a recent incident where a car had flipped over near his home on Fountain Ave. LAPD officers had come and gone, leaving the vehicle in the street and forcing pedestrians to attempt to re-direct traffic on their own. Erickson personally requested the Sheriff’s help via Public Safety Director Kristin Cook. 

“I essentially begged Kristin to get someone out there. They sent one of your sheriffs, they parked and they sat in their car and watched it all happen,” he said.

“I’m a councilmember. I’m on the phone with our public safety director and I can’t get anyone out here to make sure members of the public who are actively in the street directing traffic don’t get killed by cars on Fountain. And that’s just one of the many issues that I hear every day about reporting and how people don’t feel like they’re taken seriously.”

Ramirez defended his department’s performance.

“Our teams are doing the best job that they can with the resources that we have. Violent crime is on the rise and we will continue to continue to work diligently to ensure the safety and security of the citizens of West Hollywood, whether we have 50 deputies or whether we have 60 deputies, and that’s just what the Sheriff’s Department does. We have always worked with less. I strongly discourage it but we will always work with the tools that we are given.”

Erickson seemed unsatisfied with the response.

“How many more officers is it going to take to make our residents feel safe? And I don’t know if that’s even the right question because we don’t have that analysis in front of us but I hear a lot of members of the public say that they are scared and that is something that I take very seriously regardless of whatever people say about how I actually feel. That is what I actually take very seriously. And they wouldn’t be here at 11:30 at night if they didn’t feel this way and I still don’t know if we have a concrete plan to making individuals feel safer and that worries me. Because you are still getting roughly $19 million — a big portion of our budget to do that — and people still feel really unsafe.”

Publishers Note: Council member Erickson has advocated cutting the Sheriff department budget due to a whistleblower who accused the Los Angeles County Sheriff over billing. With cost increases in labor and other West Hollywood’s public safety budget and the number of officers have yet to be restored to pre-covid levels. Council member voted instead for a $100,000 study to study reparations for black and indigenous peoples, and almost another $100,000 to repaint the crosswalks with a new flag.

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JF1
JF1
2 years ago

The answer: the same number of deputies we have now…better yet, more. Dumb. Dumb.

Tom
Tom
2 years ago

When did he get John Heilman’s hairdo?

Tom
Tom
2 years ago

I hope everyone understands the mistakes voters made cuz someone voted the clowns IN. Meister seems like the only competent one in the council surrounded by the resurrection of Barnum Baileys.

Divisive Strategies
Divisive Strategies
2 years ago

John Heilman and Abbe Land seem to have provided bookend council members John Erickson and Lindsey Horvath while Sepi Shyne came in from nowhere with her divisiveness couched in Soulillume Reikei Therapy. The art of it all.

Patil
Patil
2 years ago

Four words:
Beverly Hills Police Department,
You incompetent council.

Oops, that was 7….. but the council has a difficult time with everything anyway, they won’t notice.

Tom
Tom
2 years ago
Reply to  Patil

It was interesting that Lindsay Horvath attended and spoke before the BH City Council on the installation of Lili Bosse as Mayor. I wonder if after her speech of congratulations and promises of co-operation she stayed to hear Mayor Bosse (and the rest of the council) affirm their support of BHPD and that they would not support defunding them. Just asking..

Caution
Caution
2 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Typical Horvath tactic, cozy up. Actually a DJT move. Article in yesterdays BH Courier.

Duplicity
Duplicity
2 years ago
Reply to  Caution

https://wehoonline.com/2022/04/05/councilmember-erickson-how-many-deputies-do-we-need-to-make-weho-feel-safe/#comment-136945

Horvath in action at end of article.

She also made an appearance at the LA Marathon in Santa Monica. Actually, Horvath seems to show up at the opening of every envelope. Going for name recognition at the ballot box. Duplicitous.

Faulty Information
Faulty Information
2 years ago

The information regarding a “citizen’s arrest” is correct but not fully articulated. The person making the arrest should be aware and should be warned by law enforcement that they may be sued by the presumed assailant. Surprising that Commander Ramirez failed to mention that point. What was noticeable was a response to Council Member Erickson’s questions when pressed. The dialogue proceeded with “our teams are doing the best they can” and it is noteworthy that Commander Ramirez resorted to the written dialogue notes/talking points he had carefully review page by page earlier. At that point one would have expected a… Read more »

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago

Thanks for this interesting analysis. Ms. Soon-Shiong’s position is fraught with a combination of random facts, mis-conceptions and ideological spin that is apparently being embraced by a majority of the City Council. Much as Republicans have been at war with science, our Council seems equally at war with common sense and respect for factual debate.

Simply SHE
Simply SHE
2 years ago

SHE’s faux woke boytoy tries to make a play for the camera and falls flat on his face. The only memorable line from Erickson in the 8 hour long council meeting was him shrieking that Fountain was a “death trap” and more cones would help.

Weho Hombre
Weho Hombre
2 years ago
Reply to  Simply SHE

Yes, Erickson also talked about his one-bedroom apartment on Fountain, where he offered to house young women who couldn’t get an abortion in Texas and were welcome to stay with him while they got their abortion. Hello! Does his employer, Planned Parenthood, approve! Or the Weho City Attorney! Talk about lawsuits on the horizon. Erickson, if confronted, would do one of his nervous laughs and say, “I’m gay!” 

WehoFan
WehoFan
2 years ago

Randy and Joshua are working hard to protect their friends on the city council!

LFlyntJr
LFlyntJr
2 years ago
Reply to  WehoFan

The last thing you would want is friends like that SHE.

Tom
Tom
2 years ago

The clown is somewhat correct here He admits he can’t get proper Police assistance but fails to mention its because of cuts in services over year ago.
The clown blatantly admits the outcome of cutting even more police with Lyndsay.
WOW can you imagine having less. People have been experiencing, that police can not do their jobs 100% because of MORE crime and cuts. This is why we are all here with WEHOville Fight the clowns Recall Gaston

Joshua88
Joshua88
2 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Can you cite the number of cuts in 2021 – which services – and when they occurred?

WehoFan
WehoFan
2 years ago
Reply to  Joshua88

Haha. Do your own research Joshua.

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  Joshua88

At least two deputies were cut in 2019/20. In In 2014 we had 67 deputies but then we were at 62 and now we are at sixty. The defunding proposal will leave us at 50.

Weho Hombre
Weho Hombre
2 years ago

Erickson is a punch line to a very sick joke. It is puzzling why Planned Parenthood would have this clown working for them.

A.K. McNeil
A.K. McNeil
2 years ago

These are the laws you wanted. Because of cuts in service, LAPD no longer responds to traffic incidents. Once everyone is ok, it’s up to the parties to clean up the mess. This is what happens when you cut police services. What does you have some civilian traffic service with NO POLICE POWERS come take care of everything you know since we don’t need the police.

greeneyedguy
greeneyedguy
2 years ago
Reply to  A.K. McNeil

LAPD?

Tom
Tom
2 years ago

Do people remember that LA county DA instructed all Police NOT to bother with non violent crime over a year ago.
This head clown is trying to divert reality when Ramirez said it’s state law.
The head clown does not know facts or not telling the truth. Attempting to continue the bandwagon against common sense, safety to blame police for his woke stupidity.
Just like the rest vote them OUT, Lindsay and Soon Yoon got to go go go.
Who else is on the list?