City Manager David Wilson announced that the city of West Hollywood would pause the pursuit of a study to determine whether WeHo needs own police department.
“Finally, the city went through a request for proposals process to select a consultant to conduct a feasibility study and review of the existing contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,” Wilson said at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
“The recommended consultant was initially presented at the February 13, 2023 Public Safety Commission meeting, and a second discussion dedicated to this topic was held at a study session and community listening session at the March 13, 2023 Public Safety Commission meeting.
“Based on the comments from the public during those meetings, staff will not be bringing forth a recommendation to the city council to select a consultant to conduct the Municipal Police Department feasibility study and review of the existing LASD contract at this time.”
The Public Safety Commission’s surprise decision came less than a year after City Council chose to reduce funding to the Sheriff’s Department in an effort to “re-imagine” how the city approaches criminal justice.
“As we pause this process, we will continue to focus on the implementation of the city’s community safety and well-being strategy, which includes law enforcement trust, transparency, and accountability as integral system priorities. More information on the community safety and well-being strategy is available online at weho.org/cswb.”
And HOW MUCH was paid for a consultant on a known’NEVER GONNA HAPPEN” issue?
At the current time there is NO criminal law enforcement agency in the city. The sheriff is CIVIL law enforcement and the personnel are not trained or assigned police duties by statute. This arrangement in West Hollywood is illegal. The longer the city postpones the inevitable “coming to Jesus” that will follow years of illegal criminal law enforcement, the more liability exposure. The sheriff as criminal law enforcement has resulted in wholesale theft of gay and semite households in lieu of delivering recorded wills. There is no check on them in the city, county or state visavie a police department.… Read more »
Can you imagine head clowns Ericsson and Shyne running their own Police dept.
It is frightening
This just confirms the City Council is probably one of the worst in California. Certainly the worst mayor.
Great decision! We need Sheriff’s deputies randomly cruising through the city in their squad cars, with their eyes on their cellphones and not the sidewalks. And we don’t need feet on the street to scare poor criminals and stop them from breaking windows. Densely populated cities all have their own police forces and operate with “feet on the street” rather than cops driving all day in their cars. We aren’t New York, or Chicago, or San Francisco. That’s why criminals love to call WeHo home.
If you want more cops walking the street, then we need more cops. I’m all for more cops. But since the council cut 3 and we now only have 56 for 24/7, I need cops in a car so they get to me lickity split if I need them.
In the past we had very aggressive Sheriff’s bike patrols that made people feel a lot safer and were effective as they were actually on the street.
When the city had 64 deputies sure. Even then, the bikes are more efficient than the walking. There was also a time when cops were stationed across the street from the Abbey. The “600 block of Robertson” shows up every morning on CrimeMapping.
I remember the bike patrols. Today, you can get them e-bikes that give them the ability to zoom up a street or catch someone running away easier. I’d like to see the 2023 version of this return, but with the state of relations with LASD and no hope of our own PD (which I still favor), I’m not sure this will ever happen. The security ambassadors do exactly nothing.
Not sure what cities you are talking about. Besides NY (where crime is out of control due to Democratic policies) I don’t know of any cities in California with foot beats. And those foot beats in NY are mostly centered around Times Square. And way more criminals call NY, SF, and Chicago home than Weho. You want to trade the stats of the big three on murders, robberies and rapes with Weho? ….I doubt it.
The subject should have been buried years ago. What we need is careful and firm negotiators at contact time with LASD
The city has proven time and again that they are poor contact creators and even poorer negotiators. A widespread disaster is bubbling up like a volcano in the housing market affecting rent stabilized residences, the unacceptable loss of and retaliation against residents. The epidemic exposed much of this but the city makes little effort to enforce their own ordinances. Anticipation and Proactive are not qualities associated with the city as they apparently favor hiring people lacking antennaes and problem saving abilities.
That was “poor contract creators”……
Yes, careful and firm negotiations by competent negotiators. Standby, they’ll hire a consultant to do it.
I believe WeHo’s first move will be to hire a consultant to study the effectiveness of competent negotiations and only then, when they’ve uncovered the (apparently) hidden truth, will they hire a consultant to select a competent negotiator. It’s how things are done in our progressive, creative City.
Common sense for once. For once.
Beverly Hills has 4.5 officers per thousand residents. West Hollywood has 1.7 officers per thousand residents. We are below the national average with a severely underfunded station. Amazing how council wants WEHO sheriff to be more like BHPD yet refuses to give them the resources they need. You can’t call for quicker response times, more reports to be taken, better training, etc. while simultaneously defunding our department and continuing to reduce the number of deputies on the streets. A city of our size should have double the number of deputies from what we currently have to be up to the… Read more »
So simple, yet the clowns on council, don’t have the mental capacity to comprehend this.
A very smart and prudent decision. The city should now look to add more Deputies and a Sunset Blvd sub station. Oh, and get rid if the Ambassadors, they even hate the program.
Couldn’t agree more. Having a substation would be fantastic and I’d go as far as wanting to see LASD kiosks similar to what LAPD has at the grove. Having one where target on La Brea is would be a perfect location. The city should also invest in the sheriffs volunteer program versus spending millions on these “ambassadors.” We could have our own residents patrolling the city for pennies on the dollar compared to what we’re spending on block by block.
Good decision.
the city focuses on painting sidewalks and parades. they aren’t capable of considering serious matters.
There appear to be few sophisticated, practical thinkers in Weho. Treat the LASD as a science or engineering experiment. List the wishes, subtract the flaws, re-engineer some aspects, institute a fresh attitude policy and voila! Something to work with.