On Wednesday, March 9, 2022, Sheriff Alex Villanueva held a press conference to discuss the severe impacts of the department’s staff shortages and defunding amid a consistent rise in crime.
Sheriff Villanueva began the press conference by stating that throughout the Los Angeles County’s history, there was an agreement that public safety was a priority for the Board of Supervisors, but over the last couple of years, that has changed drastically.
Currently, there are 783 sworn vacancies in the department and the number is expected to grow to over 927 by April 1st due to personnel retiring. Deputies, Sergeants and Lieutenants are critical positions that staff patrol stations, courts and jail facilities. They’re first responders that maintain and improve public safety. Patrol stations are operating with as low as 70% of deputy personnel when 100% is needed. In other words, the 70% has to work overtime to cover the 100%.
The County budget has continued to steadily rise, but the Sheriff’s budget has not had the same relative growth. During 2018-2019, 11.85% of the County’s total budget was devoted to the Sheriff’s Department. Now it’s shrunk to 8.9% and falling. Net County cost continues to rise, but the Sheriff’s is decreasing. Sheriff Villanueva showed a graph to compare Net County Costs (NCC) of counties surrounding LA County; Riverside County is 38% of NCC, Orange County is 25%, Ventura County 32%, San Bernardino 22% and LA County 16%.
In 2019, the department had a total of 12 academy classes where 1100 Deputy Sheriff Trainees were hired, but the Board of Supervisors cut academy classes to 7 in 2020 and down again to 3 in 2021. It takes a minimum of 8 classes to maintain the staffing levels of the department.
Firearms-related arrests have almost doubled from 2017 to 2021, and in half of those arrests ghost guns were seized. “Every arrest we make is one less crime that’s going to occur. One less homicide, one less assault with a deadly weapon, one less robbery,” said Sheriff Villanueva.
A graph that separated murders by supervisorial districts showed the highest murder rate in Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s district. Ironically, Mitchell has said that she does not want any money going to the Sheriff’s Department.
The Scientific Services Bureau (Crime Lab) lost 22 positions during the October 2020 curtailment. As a result, there is a 4,200 firearm and ballistic submission backlog, there is a 3-month backlog for toxicology, and the homicide and evidence collection has increased significantly.
Amongst the many consequences of the defunding of the department are deputies working multiple shifts. Deputies used to only be allowed to work 12 days in a row, but now the number has increased to 30 days in a row because the department simply does not have the personnel to meet its needs.
Sheriff Villanueva did not shy away from stating that the Board of Supervisors is acting on retribution and political motives without legal or moral justification for doing so. Their motives are affecting the Sheriff’s Department and are taking away vital law enforcement services from everyone. Their actions are hurting and will continue to hurt public safety.
People are gonna have to learn the hard way
Dump the corrupt LASD. They and their gang member deputies are the lowest of LA services. I’ll never report a crime to them again as they do nothing when I have before. We need our own police force that is accountable to the community.
Good time to point out that over 2000 Sherriff’s department employees were out with covid-19 in January/February. https://ktla.com/news/local-news/more-than-2000-lapd-sheriffs-department-employees-off-duty-due-to-covid/ Not wearing masks has consequences. Not only were they NOT enforcing the mask mandate but many of the officers refused to wear their masks when interacting with the public. Seems to me that public safety should be their #1 priority. There are at least 100 videos on twitter of LA County Sheriffs being confronted about wearing masks and they don’t care. My point is you would have an extra 2000 employees to schedule so overtime wouldn’t need to be used but they… Read more »
First thought: sheriff press conference held on March 9 is reported on March 18. Huh?
Why anyone pays any attention to an incompetent, lying, law-breaking thug like Villanueva is beyond my comprehension.
The Sheriff’s budget was rising until 2018/2019; then COVID-19 hit and initially crime rates plummeted. There was less demand on the crime lab and no one was going to Academy classes due to the inability to have in person classes. This was not “poltics”, this was due to COVID related hits to the County’s budget. But the Supervisors need to restore the funding, particularly for the Academy as we need more deputies to over come the Department’s reliance on huge amounts of over time which tends to burn out deputies.
There will be no “defunding” of the police. The idea is patently ridiculous & was very much instrumental in the devastating losses by the Democratic party in 2020. That was indeed a painful lesson & since then, most Democrats reject the whole idea out of hand. West Hollywood doesn’t have to worry about losing elections to extremist Republicans, but it’s a deep concern to the national Democratic party. “Defund the police” is an expression & a proposition that should never rear its ugly head as a Democratic party election mantra – ever again. BTW, decreasing the number of sheriffs at… Read more »
Perhaps West Hollywood could contact for police service from a city with a similarity lively nightlife; Santa Monica, Huntington Beach or Oceanside. Then maybe the state can re-form the disbanded state police vintage 1995. They were the unfortunate victim of budget cut. The services performed exclusively by a sheriff’s department could be assigned to Marshalls for the State Attorney General.
Just a thought.
Clearly cuts to the crime lab and the Academy need to be restored. But ultimately the way out of this political morass is to have the Sheriff be appointed by the Board of Supervisors and create real accountability with the Department. There is virtually no reason for having an elected Sheriff. There would be more responsive service and a change in the Department’s culture if the Sheriff was simply another department head working for the Board of Supes.
An elected Sherriff is essential to LASD’s mandate to uphold the Constitution.
A reminder that the LA Board of Supervisors have broken the law. The medical mandates and passports— all the things our leaders are doing— are not only illegal, they’re Unconstitutional . Violating the constitution is more than simply breaking a law; it’s breaking the highest law of the land.
Elected officials who willfully infringe on our basic rights are committing extreme crimes, up to and including treason. And not just national crimes, also international crimes against humanity, of a Nuremberg-level severity.
The board of supervisors shouldn’t be allowed to pick fruit, let alone a Sheriff.
This can not be said loud enough..”Sheriff Villanueva did not shy away from stating that the Board of Supervisors is acting on retribution and political motives without legal or moral justification for doing so. Their motives are affecting the Sheriff’s Department and are taking away vital law enforcement services from everyone. Their actions are hurting and will continue to hurt public safety.”
Agree……The BOS and most importantly Weho City officials should keep the politics out of public safety.
The number of personnel is not necessarily as important as the philosophy of the personnel. The hostile entrenched behavior must be rooted out and until that happens, sad to say not much will likely visibly change.